Another ethnic minority group is accusing the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) of creating a hostile environment.
Earlier this month, StandWithUs, a Jewish advocacy group, filed a complaint (Jewish Advocacy complaint Santa Clara Title VI Complaint) with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The complaint alleges the district has fostered a hostile environment for Jewish students and that SCUSD has failed to equitably enforce and clearly define its policies.
According to the complaint, offenses include “ … antisemitic slurs directed against Jewish students, demonization of Jewish and Israeli students by their peers, as well as the approved use of antisemitic content and programming by teachers and guest speakers.”
The complaint is the second such complaint filed against the district. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a similar complaint in October last year. That complaint also alleged that SCUSD fosters a hostile environment, but for Palestinian and Muslim students.
Both complaints point to situations at Wilcox High School as particularly egregious.
Jenna Harris, senior counsel K-12 specialist with StandWithUs, acknowledged that “small parts of each complaint cannot exist simultaneously” and that federal investigators will need to work out the disparities. Still, she said the two complaints aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.
“No one knows what the rules are. No one knows where to go … nobody feels safe. That is not good for anyone,” she said. “The concern is that they are getting these reports of a hostile environment … [their response] should look the same regardless of the slur that was used, the hateful graffiti that was used.”
The root of the problem, Harris said, is that people who are not Zionists are defining Zionism, which she defined as “Jewish people’s desire for self-determination and safety in their ancestral homeland.”
This phenomena, she said, has created a “fundamental misunderstanding” of “the very basics” of antisemitism, which she called a “unique kind of bigotry.” Historically, she said the idea has shifted, leaving Jewish people being discriminated against for being socialists and capitalists alike and for being “too white” but also for being “not white enough.”
The most “alarming area of disparate treatment” at SCUSD, according to the complaint, is policies regarding student clubs and guest speakers. While school policy allows students to express themselves on controversial topics, the policy prohibits “obscene, libelous, or slanderous” or language that creates a “clear and present danger.”
“What we are seeing is that the students are not learning how to engage with controversial topics,” Harris said. “They are getting a clear message that they won’t be protected and [to] hide their concerns if they want to survive the school day … Families are being told ‘nuanced discussion is not welcome here.’”
StandWithUs did not revel in having to involve the government, Harris said. The parents involved earnestly attempted to work collaboratively with the district to resolve the issues in the complaint, but, ultimately, they felt there was no other remedy to address the problems.
Allegations of a toxic culture are not limited to the OCR complaints. Backlash claiming the district failed to provide adequate support to a Santa Clara teen who committed suicide last year spawned a strategy to bolster mental health support. Further, two teachers in recent months have butted heads with the district over losing their jobs, citing an environment rife with retaliation.
In a statement responding to the StandWithUs complaint, the district pointed to its newly created portal for addressing controversial issues. That portal, the statement claims, has been curated with resources from groups that “champion diversity and protect student speech.”
“Santa Clara Unified School District is committed to our values of equity, empathy, and respect. Our schools are beautifully diverse, and we strive for environments where every young person and employee feels a sense of safety, welcome, and belonging,” according to the statement, which is nearly identical to the statement it released in response to the CAIR complaint.
However, the statement reads that the district looks forward to sharing its “equity work” with the OCR. Just as with the CAIR complaint, SCUSD maintains that it will hold further comments until the OCR finishes its investigation.
Contact David Alexander at d.todd.alexander@gmail.com
I’m not against Jews, Christians or Muslims. I am against land grabs by anybody. The nation of Israel is slaughtering people to gain their land (just like was done to Native Americans). The land that Israel is claiming has had many different peoples living mostly peacefully for centuries, but now they are being killed.
There are twice as many Jews in the US as live in the multiethnic Israel, so maybe we should give them some land here?