As a long-time anti-Zionist activist and retired teacher, I submitted a Public Records Act (PRA) request to the California Department of Education (CDE) for copies of all formal complaints, filed from October 7, 2023 to May 26, 2026, alleging discrimination, harassment, intimidation and bullying that was so “severe” and “pervasive” as to violate federal or state law in California schools.

If a local education agency (LEA), a school district or county office of education, receives a complaint–a Uniform Complaint Procedure (UCP)–the LEA must, within 60 days, conduct an investigation, interview parties involved, and decide whether to order “corrective action.” Sometimes the UCP ends there. If, however, the complainants are dissatisfied with the LEA ruling, they may appeal to the CDE.

I reviewed the appeals.

The CDE lacks authority to discipline school personnel, and the appeals I reviewed did not recommend teacher discipline. Teachers, however, have been told by their school districts to remove their keffiyehs and steer-clear of stating as fact that Israel exemplifies “settler colonialism.” If an LEA or CDE finds a complaint has merit, it may order school districts to implement teacher training in antisemitism in consultation with a Jewish or Israeli organization. These orders open the door for Zionist organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee to teach teachers that criticism of Israel is antisemitic and discriminates on the basis of national origin.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment, education and public accommodations based on someone’s birthplace or ancestry–but does not prohibit criticism of a sovereign state, which is protected speech according to the American Civil Liberties Union. In October 2025, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Palestine will Be Free, from the River to the Sea, protest at MIT did not constitute harassment under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

The CDE’s release of files reflects the Department and school districts’ tendency to conflate anti-Zionism (opposition to Israel) with antisemitism (bigotry toward Jews for being Jewish). Under AB 715 (D-Zbur) legislation that establishes an antisemitism coordinator to police instruction and teacher training, this confusion could get a lot worse because AB 715 incorporates the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which promotes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition and examples that conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

Teachers and their allies can, however, revolt: march on Sacramento, challenge Zionist teacher training, file their own complaints and collectively teach Palestine across school departments and districts.

The following is a review of some of the CDE’s cases addressing allegations of antisemitism or discrimination against Jews and/or Israelis.

Banned!

In 2025, the principal of Mountain View Los Altos High School banned popular Lebanese-Palestinian American comedian Sammy Obeid after he cracked jokes about Israel at an after-school on campus event in 2025 hosted by the Muslim Student Association (MSA). The school investigation report (IR) read, “During the event, the comedian made antisemitic remarks: about the Israeli Prime Minister getting cancer, calling the Prime Minister a supervillain, and how Israel does not believe in abortion so it can bomb more Palestinians.”Months earlier, on November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity in Gaza, including “starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.”

Nevertheless, the District concluded–after berating the Muslim students for inviting Obeid–that the comedian’s performance was antisemitic. The CDE agreed and ordered the district to further revise its guest speaker policies to include strict vetting and get-off-the-stage intervention should an administrator believe the speaker’s conduct discriminated against a protected group on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, and physical or mental disabilities.

Granted, there were reports of a real antisemitic incident related to the same school district–a social media post from an anonymous Nazi student club–but the CDE threw Obeid into the same bucket as student Nazis in ruling that his anti-Israel jokes were discriminatory against Jewish students. The CDE and the school district, thus, took a page out of the IHRA to confuse criticism and jokes about Israel and its wanted war criminals with bigotry toward Jews in general.

P.S. For the record, abortion is legal in Israel as long as women obtain approval from the Israeli Pregnancy Termination Board.

San Ramon Valley HS

In another example of conflation, the CDE ordered (11/24/25) San Ramon Valley High School to deliver teacher training on antisemitism to all social studies teachers after the department ruled a teacher’s class statements were proof of discriminatory bias against Jewish and Israeli students. The department’s fact finding said the teacher told students that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Hardly breaking news. Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Doctors without Borders and the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry had all determined Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Nonetheless, the CDE said the appeal had merit because the teacher did not cite sources and present an opposing viewpoint. The Department ordered San Ramon Valley High School to provide the CDE with evidence by 1/30/26 that the school had delivered training from someone not affiliated with the school district to ensure that classroom instruction “does not promote a discriminatory bias.”

Anti-Palestinian racism

The Institute for the Understanding of Anti-Palestinian Racism (IUAPR) defines anti-Palestinian racism as a form of racism that “silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives.”

A CDE ruling involving New Haven Unified School District might serve as an example of erasing the human rights and worth of Palestinians. After teachers in the summer 2025 Ethnic Studies Social Justice Academy (ESSJA) presented a slide deck describing actions by Israelis against Palestinians as potentially constituting “genocide, ethnic cleansing and settler colonialism,’ the Department said instruction lacked adequate balance and historical context, and cast Israel in a negative light. The Department acknowledged that the slides for students also discussed the horrific impact of the Holocaust, the ancient connection of Jews to the land also claimed by Palestinians, and how “The Israeli government is separate from innocent Israeli/Jewish people who stand for justice,” but still …

The Department then ordered the school district to train ESSJA teachers and administrators in the “obligation to comply with Education Code 51500, which states that a teacher shall not deliver instruction, and a school district shall not sponsor any activity that promotes a discriminatory bias.”

Points for the MAGA team.

Lawfare

Brandeis Center for Human Rights: Brandeis v. California

On 2/26/26, the Brandeis Center for Human Rights and Stand With Us filed an antisemitism lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the State of California and the California Department of Education.

The lawsuit includes examples of alleged antisemitism in specific school districts, and yet seeks statewide relief encompassing 10,000 public schools in California.

In Los Angeles, the Center complains of a lack of school response to peers shouting “Free Gaza” at an Israeli American student. In Oakland, the Center complains of early elementary school teachers reading aloud the book “P” is for Palestine. The Brandeis Center and Stand with Us seek a court order to mandate antisemitism training with their respective organizations for all California schools and a committee of experts to review all Ethnic Studies curriculum.

Kenneth Marcus, founder and chair of the Brandeis Center, was appointed by Trump in 2018 as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S.State Department. Among the Brandeis Center’s funders are owners of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team–billionaire Marc Ressler and his wife actress Jami Gertz– who oversee the Ressler/Gertz Foundation.

CDE vs. Oakland Unified

With Brandeis on its neck, the CDE filed its own lawsuit (3/5/26) against the Oakland Unified School District, alleging Oakland Unified failed to turn over its investigation file with notes on complaints and meet a deadline for educator antisemitism training in consultation with a Jewish or Israeli organization.

Interveners

Enter K-12 Legal Defense, led by attorney Liz Jackson, and San Francisco law firm Leonard Carder, LLP, with their motion filed (5/11/16) to intervene in Brandeis vs. California on behalf of a group of ten California families—Jewish and Palestinian parents and students enrolled in public schools from Los Angeles to the Bay Area. An intervenor can introduce new arguments and expand discovery.

“California is home to the largest Palestinian community in the nation—the scale of potential harm from anti-Palestinian racism is unprecedented,” said the intervenors in a press release explaining they filed the motion to protect student First Amendment rights, equal access to education and religious freedom.

Back in Oakland

The Oakland Jewish Alliance filed multiple UCP’s, like this one, objecting to a display of pro-Palestinian posters, flags and maps in classrooms and elsewhere on campus.

In response, the CDE ordered the school district to implement teacher training in discrimination with a focus on antisemitism by January 16, 2025. Similarly, the CDE–citing the alleged discomfort of Jewish students-instructed the school district to provide training for the journalism faculty adviser at Oakland Tech after the school newspaper published a news article titled, “Israel’s Violation of International Law: A Closer Look at Apartheid, Settlements, and Ongoing Humanitarian Concerns.”

Aside from suing the State of California, the Brandeis Center has filed lawsuits or federal complaints against the following California school districts: Santa Ana Unified, Sequoia Unified, Etiwanda, Berkeley Unified, Palo Alto Unified and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In her Instagram post, “Antisemitism Lawsuits Make Jews Unsafe,”Laura Einhorn, Ed.d, public school teacher in San Leandro, said, “This unrelenting lawfare saps resources from deeply under-resourced school districts and “positions Jews against teachers, against Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians” to “isolate our Jewish communities.”

Undeterred, the Brandeis Center, high on lawfare, has also filed an Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) charge against the three-million member National Education Association (NEA) –the largest union in the country. Brandeis claims teachers at the NEA 2025 Representative Assembly made Jewish teachers uncomfortable during debate and passage of a motion – moved by a Jewish delegate–to reject the ADL for curriculum and teacher training.

Teacher and community resistance

Rank and file Oakland educators circulated an Open Letter calling on the District “to resist the concerted attacks by political groups who slander as “antisemitic” anyone who criticizes Israeli apartheid and genocide or Zionism.”

Yet, the Oakland Unified School District-reeling from the CDE lawsuit–still mandated teachers watch and interact with an Anti-Defamation League 20-minute video “Antisemitism: What Do Educators Need to Know,” which defines antisemitism as “marginalization and/or oppression of people who are Jewish based on the belief in stereotypes and myths about Jewish people, Judaism and Israel.” The video suggests educators use the ADL toolkit, which includes the following politically-crafted examples of antisemitism: “Language, rhetoric or actions that demonizes, delegitimizes or applies a double standard to the Jewish state, Zionism and Zionists (perceived or actual).”

The ADL training stands in dramatic contrast to a teach-in rank and file Oakland teachers organized in December 2023, two months after October 7th, as Israel dropped 2,000 pound bombs on Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas on earth. Objecting to District resources from Zionist-funded organizations, the teachers provided workshop participants with a recommended list of books, films and lessons.

Across the bay, in San Francisco, in the fall of 2024, a dozen teachers declined to participate in District antisemitism training with the American Jewish Committee, a Zionist organization that boasts on its website “We stand up for Israel.” Teachers instead chose to attend professional development with PARCEO, a non-Zionist organization anchored in the belief that ending antisemitism is part of an intersectional fight for collective liberation of all people.

Down in Los Angeles, teachers and community members rallied (5/16/26) in front of the Downtown Business Magnet to protest the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) decree that Ethnic Studies and social studies teachers remove “Stop Genocide” posters and Palestinian and Black Lives Matter flags, as well as undergo teacher training on the use of “neutral terms” to describe sensitive topics, including Israel’s slaughter and starvation of Gaza.

Teacher and Union del Barrio organizer Ron Gochez said the District’s edict that teachers remain silent in the face of a US-subsidized genocide was like telling teachers in Nazi Germany to take a neutral stance on the Holocaust.

Earlier, in 2025, United Teachers Los Angeles members of the union’s House of Representatives voted to partner with PARCEO on antisemitism training for teachers and community. When Zionist teachers later demanded the union also partner with the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, the HOR voted down the motion. The Federation adorns its website with an Israeli flag, adopts the IHRA and invites educators on propaganda tours of Israel.

Zionist appeal dismissed

In these pendulum-swinging times, local school district and CDE rulings are not always consistent, nor favorable to defenders of Israeli apartheid. The Israel lobby has failed to win every appeal, which hints at why the lobby pushed so hard for a bill to micro-manage educators–particularly Ethnic Studies teachers whose state curriculum emphasizes international solidarity in the face of colonization.

Notably, the CDE dismissed a 2025 Zionist appeal of a Campbell Union High School District ruling, in which the school district determined a teacher had not promoted a partisan point of view or antisemitic speech with lessons on Gaza. Three weeks into a unit on the Holocaust–in which students read Night by Ellie Wiesel– the teacher shared a slide deck titled “The Disputed Genocide in Gaza.” The slides referenced South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), stating the Court ruled that South Africa’s genocide claim was “plausible” and ordered Israel to allow food into Gaza. One slide also stated “Israel has consistently denied all accusations of genocide.”

The complainant argued the teacher misrepresented the ICJ’s ruling to say that Israel committed a plausible case of genocide, when in fact the court had ruled Gaza had a plausible right to be protected from genocide. The CDE rejected the hair-splitting appeal, saying the District was correct to imply there was “no unlawful discrimination on the basis of a protected characteristic.”

The both-sides-dual narrative approach

On May 8, 2026, the CDE dismissed an appeal from the Pleasanton School District, where, in an example of verbal jujitsu, a teacher said, “..there is a humanitarian crisis going on in Gaza; and, in history, we have seen that conflicts like this “can lead to” genocide such as the Holocaust.”

The temptation then is for teachers to present both sides of a conflict, and give equal weight to each side, even when one side is obliterating every university in Gaza, bombing hospitals, schools, refugee centers, and residential neighborhoods, deliberately killing children with gunshots to their vital organs, deploying white phosphorous in populated areas to burn to the bone, and unleashing attack dogs to torture naked prisoners.

In the Journal of Interreligious Studies, Rutgers Jewish Studies professor Michal Raucher argues against the dual narrative approach which she initially adopted to teach a course on Israel-Palestine. “I wasn’t sure if students ever actually learned the history, and I found students were confused about the power imbalance because the dual narrative approach presents Israelis and Palestinians as possessing equal power.”

Still, for teachers walking a tightrope under the watchful eye of an AB 715 enforcer, there are some lessons that lend themselves to a “both sides” debate: South Africa vs. Israel at the International Court of Justice or Zionists vs. non-Zionists on school board adoption of the IHRA definition and examples of antisemitism.

CDE Rulings: Do’s and Don’ts

A further analysis of the CDE and school district rulings suggests “Stop the Genocide” and “Resistance is Justified” posters are verboten–even when created by students and stored behind a teacher’s desk for a year, but classroom libraries that include author Nur Masalha, “Palestine, a Four Thousand Year History” along with Holocaust literature are allowed.

Parents in Santa Clara can host a Palestine booth for World Cultural Diversity Day to display Palestinian food and clothing, but not to display an iconic photograph of a Palestinian woman clutching an olive tree while Israeli soldiers loom in the background.

The keffiyeh

The CDE is still out on the keffiyeh, a Palestinian scarf or headdress traditionally worn by Bedouin farmers to protect themselves from the blistering heat. A cultural symbol, “the bold black stripes on the edges symbolize the historical trade routes that used to go through Palestine; the fishnet-like design represents the Palestinians’ ties to the Mediterranean Sea; and the curvy lines resemble olive trees, a major point of pride for Palestinians,” according to National Public Radio.

On May 7, 2025, Jews BeLong Beach filed an appeal to the CDE after the local school district ruled that a teacher who consistently wore a keffiyeh in class did not discriminate against Jewish students. The CDE upheld the local district ruling that the teacher’s attire or expression was protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and said, “discomfort by itself does not rise to the level of being subjected to discrimination.”

Despite this department precedent, the CDE has ordered LAUSD to re-investigate an Ethnic Studies teacher to determine the frequency with which she wore a keffiyeh during class. The “frequency” issue raises the question: If the teacher wore a keffiyeh daily or more than once a month, would that cross an arbitrary line?

In the LA case, there was not a single student who complained about the keffiyeh; in fact students described the teacher’s class as “open, non-judgemental, comfortable.”

Notably, a federal court in Maryland has allowed a teacher to proceed with her lawsuit against her school district because it threatened her with discipline for wearing a keffiyeh in class. Also worth noting is that neither the CDE nor LEA provided copies of the complaints or rulings to the LA teacher or the union who represents her.

Real antisemitism

The release of public records did reveal a few disturbing cases of true antisemitism, such as students praising Hitler, drawing swastikas in the school bathroom, and taping a Nazi flag to a student’s back without his knowledge. These cases, however, involved peer harassment, not teacher instruction, and can be addressed through restorative justice.

Conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism takes our eye off the ball–the danger posed by white supremacists who shout, “Jews will not replace us” on a torch-lit march in Charlottesville. Such conflation brands all Jews as supporters of Israel – a dangerous and unwanted branding when Israel–a state that purports to represent the Jewish people–kills, wounds and starves hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, bombards and occupies Lebanon and launches an unprovoked attack on Iran.

Solutions

Solutionaries might focus on lobbying institutional power: the Governor, the state legislature, school boards and county offices of education, both before and after the state senate confirms a gubernatorial appointment as antisemitism coordinator and the Governor usurps the duties of the State Superintendent of Instruction under AB 181.

Teachers and their social justice allies can announce they will not tolerate teacher training from Zionists and demand an alternative: e.g., PARCEO. Community defense committees can launch letter writing campaigns to defend teachers and Ethnic Studies departments under the microscope for lessons on Israel’s genocide in Gaza or for supervision of a Students for Justice in Palestine club.

Another approach calls for non-and anti-Zionists–Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Palestinian–to file their own UCP’s with local school districts to complain of anti-Palestinian racism in genocide denial, as well as antisemitism inherent in backdoor adoption of the IHRA. In my review of CDE appeals, I did not see a single UCP from a social justice advocate documenting Zionist instruction or Zionist professional development as antisemitic, anti-Palestinian and discriminatory. It’s about time.

Under AB715, instruction must be “factually accurate,” so teachers may teach the 1948 Nakba–Zionist massacres and expulsion of Palestinians–quoting from Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said’s The Question of Palestine, and Israeli historian Benny Morris’s The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, To satisfy the CDE’s requirement for balance, teachers may include The American Jewish Committee’s Why Israel is Not a Settler Colonial State and compare and contrast the arguments and evidence in all three selections.

AB 715 states that anyone (parent, teacher, student, community member) can file a complaint–within six months of an incident–without having to show evidence of direct harm. Therefore, UCP’s can be filed with a local school district to object to inaccurate instruction on the violent founding of the State of Israel.

History will not look back kindly on those demanding investigations of educators who dare to teach about Palestine during a documented genocide. Nor will history applaud those who conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism in lawsuits against states and school districts.