Civil rights organizations have filed a Title VI complaint against a local school district for alleged discrimination against Palestinian students, parents and educators.
Santa Clara Unified School District will be facing a federal civil rights complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education. The complaint alleges school officials engaged in or permitted actions which created a hostile educational environment, failed to address students’ safety concerns and suppressed Palestinian perspectives in the classroom. SCUSD spokesperson Jennifer Dericco said the district heard a complaint was filed with the Office of Civil Rights, but hasn’t been formally served. In the meantime, the district has started its own investigation.
The San Francisco Bay Area Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and Arab Resource and Organizing Center jointly submitted the complaint.
CAIR San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director Zahra Billoo said students are concerned their advocacy for human rights is being silenced.
“People are reporting that if they are Palestinian or pro-Palestine, they’re facing targeting or repression at school,” she told San José Spotlight. “That’s left the students feeling as though they don’t have a space to have conversations about who they are and what they feel.”
When the Muslim Student Association at Wilcox High School in the district wanted to invite Palestinian community leader Samir Laymoun to speak, Billoo said administrators asked them to notify the Jewish Culture Club — and asked Laymoun not to mention Gaza.
“That itself raised a lot of red flags,” Billoo said. “The school’s heavy handedness in determining who students could invite as a guest speaker and then strictly limiting what the speaker could say.”
Ran Bar-Yoshafat, deputy director of Israeli nonprofit think tank Kohelet Policy Forum, wasn’t limited in his remarks when he was scheduled to speak, Billoo said, and the Muslim Student Association wasn’t asked for approval. Billoo wants the school district to establish an equitable vetting process for speakers and a task force on anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.
“My understanding is that both student club organizations and their guest speakers followed the same process,” Dericco told San José Spotlight.
The Department of Education will assess the Title VI complaint to determine if it will open an investigation. If they don’t, Billoo said other advocacy will be explored.
Dericco said the district is committed to equity, empathy and respect. Schools are diverse, she said, and strive to create environments where students, teachers and staff feel a sense of safety and belonging.
Billoo said a woman who set up a Palestinian booth at Laurelwood Elementary School’s multicultural festival had a confrontation with an Israeli parent and administrators didn’t address it. Parent Wala Zaytoun, who created the booth, said a parent accused her of lying while tearing the Palestinian flag from her child’s festival passport. The parent’s action was in response to Zaytoun labeling a map of Israel the “Palestinian World Map.”
“I’m from that land,” Zaytoun said. “My ancestors are from that land.”
At a Santa Clara Unified School District board meeting in April, Israeli parents said they were horrified to see the entire map of Israel presented as Palestine, which implied the eradication of Jewish people. The booth’s passport stamp said “Free Palestine” and had a poster noting how many Palestinian children have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war.
Parent Galit Perez-Rashef said the booth shared misinformation and presented difficult content that distressed students.
“I’m saddened this beautiful event was used for political propaganda,” Perez-Rashef said. “People in my community were hurt.”
Parent Dan Yamin urged the board to take action against antisemitism at school.
“I was really in shock in Laurelwood, in an elementary school, that would be the case,” he said. “It is so sad to me.”
The board said it will create guidelines for future events regarding content on controversial subjects.
Even though the multicultural event didn’t go as planned for Zaytoun, she pointed out the school has an embracing philosophy.
“Everyone is welcome,” Zaytoun told San José Spotlight. “That’s what the school says. It does make a difference when you’re Palestinian.”
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email protected].
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