Several Jewish groups suing Santa Ana Unified said those in charge of creating ethnic studies courses left the Jewish community out of the conversation completely. Hetty Chang reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024.
A group of Jewish organizations that are suing the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) filed a motion to add more alleged evidence to bolster their claims that the district violated California’s opening meetings laws to exclude the Jewish community’s input in approving the ethnic studies courses.
The Anti-Defamation League, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the American Jewish Committee and the law firm Covington & Burling announced the submission of additional evidence Tuesday.
The initial lawsuit was filed in September 2023, claiming Santa Ana Unified violated Brown Act and AB 101, a state statute mandating ethnic studies for California high schools, to impetuously approve the ethnic studies curriculum with “antisemitic and unlawfully biased content” while preventing feedback from the Jewish community.
In the latest motion, one piece of alleged evidence revealed some senior officials of the district allegedly considered holding meetings to approve courses on Jewish holidays so that Jewish members of the public would not attend to voice their opinions or concerns.
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“The shocking evidence our team has uncovered shows that SAUSD deliberately tried to keep the public in the dark about the extreme biases and antisemitism that infected the District's ethnic studies curriculum,” said Dan Shallman, lead counsel from Covington & Burling LLP. “In doing so, SAUSD violated State law."
The Jewish groups also said some members of the board showed bias toward Jewish Americans with one board member suggesting the stories of Jewish Americans not be part of Santa Ana’s ethnic studies because the Jewish race falls under the white category.
In another incident, steering committee members allegedly said Jewish people are not part of a marginalized ethnic group because “they were never slaves,” adding Jewish Americans “greatly (benefited) from white privilege.”
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The distinct Tuesday denied the claims by the Jewish organizations, vowing to clear its name in court.
"The district will appear in Superior Court next month to defend its action of approving certain Ethnic Studies courses mandated by California’s legislature as new graduation requirements,” the Santa Ana Unified School District said in a statement. “The district denies (the) claims and will present counter arguments and facts to the court for consideration and is optimistic that the court will ultimately find in favor of the district.”
A hearing in the case against Santa Ana Unified is scheduled for Sep. 19.
The Santa Ana Unified School District, the largest school district in Orange County, serves over 40,000 students in most of Santa Ana and small parts of Irvine, Tustin, Costa Mesa, and Newport Beach.
