State education officials are suing the Oakland Unified School District over claims that it has failed to address persistent antisemitism on its campuses.
The California Department of Education filed the suit last week, alleging that Oakland Unified "unlawfully refused and failed to carry out the corrective actions" to curb antisemitism, as ordered by CDE officials in January.
EdSource reports the suit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, follows an appeal by Oakland-based attorney Marleen Sacks, whose complaints about antisemitism at several schools led to an OUSD investigation.
Despite finding validity in several of those complaints and "although OUSD acknowledged discrimination against Jewish or Israeli persons, according to the lawsuit, OUSD's self-imposed corrective actions did not provide a fully appropriate remedy.”
The complaints about antisemitism at OUSD surfaced largely following the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and that country's subsequent ongoing invasion of Gaza.
Many of the complaints focused on the use of pro-Palestinian posters, flags, class lessons and other materials and activities, including student walkouts and "teach-ins."
