Nearly two years after the incident that sparked it, a long-awaited decision on a divisive topic in Santa Clara schools is set to go into effect.
At a meeting in November, after months of deliberation, the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) Board of Trustees took “corrective action” against one of its teachers. That action requires administrators and teachers to undergo additional training on sensitive topics.
The teacher, Kauser Adenwala, showed footage of a Holocaust survivor likening Jews’ treatment of Palestinians in Gaza to the Final Solution.
In March 2024, Adenwala, a world history teacher at Wilcox High School, played a two-minute video showing Marione Ingram — a Holocaust survivor, activist and writer — speaking in front of the White House. In the video, footage of Nazi treatment of Jews during World War II is interspersed with the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza while Ingram speaks.
Many call TRT World, the state-sponsored network that broadcasted the video, propaganda.
Following the incident, an internal district investigation concluded that Adenwala violated district policy. After the investigation concluded, the school board discussed reprimanding Adenwala several times, beginning in August last year, but continually kicked the can down the road.
At the November meeting, the public comments became a heated back-and-forth between those defending Adenwala and those imploring the board to come down hard on her.
Proponents of reprimanding argued that the video fostered antisemitism, especially given the network’s ties to the Turkish government, which has a long history of anti-Jewish sentiment.
The topic became charged, with public members drawing lines in the sand.
At that meeting, Rabbi Yigal Rosenberg said such a narrative “erases the suffering” of Jews and “replaces history with propaganda.” He called the tactic Holocaust inversion.
“Holocaust inversion occurs when the history of the Holocaust is distorted to portray Jews or Israel not as victims of genocide but as its perpetrators. This is not legitimate political critique. It is antisemitism in disguise,” he said. “Criticism of any government’s policies is valid, but invoking Nazi imagery crosses a moral and historical line. It is an attack on Jewish memory and history.”
Those supporting Adenwala claimed the district was trying to silence dissenting voices.
Kamal Yassin said many Jews, like Ingram, disagree with how Israel is waging war.
“Does being a victim justify becoming a victimizer?” he said. “I would think all the suffering we have endured should teach us to reject any suffering of any human being and not defend it. If we are to turn a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians that is happening live, what does that make us?”
After more closed-session deliberation, the board finally sustained the investigation.
In the report from closed session, Board President Bonnie Lieberman acknowledged that Adenwala’s training prepared her to deal with such topics. She said the district’s controversial topics policy significantly aligns with the California Content Standards.
“Training as a California credential social studies teacher includes training on presenting content in a balanced manner, addressing all sides of the issue without bias or prejudice and without promoting any particular point of view, and with adequate factual information to help students objectively analyze and evaluate the issue and draw their own conclusions,” Lieberman said.
However, rather than reprimand Adenwala, the board’s corrective action laid the blame at the administration’s feet.
The corrective action “… requires training on cultural competency, curriculum development, and anti-discrimination practices in accordance with the California FAIR Education Act,” Jennifer Dericco, SCUSD’s spokesperson, wrote in an email.
“We recognize that the district bears the primary responsibility for supporting new teachers in classroom curriculum development,” Lieberman said.
The board acknowledged that the topic “invokes strong feelings and a desire to be heard,” Lieberman said. Further, she added, the district understands that it “grows and thrives” when it helps teachers develop their skills.
The district wouldn’t comment on Adewala’s situation specifically. It is vetting agencies to provide the training at its next professional development day in the spring. The district doesn’t yet know how much the additional training will cost.
Contact David Alexander at d.todd.alexander@gmail.com
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I would feel lucky for my kid to be in Adelwala’s class. Hopefully teachers do give more thought in the future however to the sources of some of the content they share with the students. What is true is that one day, everyone will have always been against this.
I literally can’t believe this was a debate, that there is, in a school system, the right for a group of people to own genocide like a copy tight, and prohibit it for being used in any other context!!!!!
Genocide is deplorable, and must be fought against, no matter who the purpotrator is.
This was not the first time Kauser Adenwala has used Holocaust distortion to promote antisemitic and violent, anti-Israel activism. In 2019, while a student at UC Davis and serving as vice president of the Muslim Student Association, she helped organize anti-Zionist events which “coincidentally” took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and during a memorial service for victims of the shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue.
She urged the UC Davis administration to stop inviting the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to speak on campus about antisemitism.
She has also been quoted as saying that Israel should be “replaced.”
Imagine discovering that someone with a record of Holocaust distortion and openly antisemitic rhetoric has been hired as a teacher at your child’s school. Imagine a teacher publicly declaring that a country should be “replaced,” while still being entrusted to educate students who may be from that very country.
SCUSD is at fault here, and not just for their lack of training. The district should have exercised greater judgment before hiring Ms. Adenwala in the first place. By allowing her to continue to teach, the district creates an unsafe environment for Jewish students, and exposes itself to serious legal consequences.