Students and educators have been organizing for Palestine and for Gaza in unprecedented numbers— and universities and now school districts have been retaliating against activists in response to pressure from both Zionist groups and from the highest levels of the U.S. Government.  In OUSD, a probationary teacher has been non-reelected— in reality, fired— for helping to organize a pro-Palestine meeting. In BUSD an art teacher has been put on administrative leave for months for allowing his students to make pro-Palestine  signs and art. (Stories on these cases below).

It’s important to see that this is a coordinated campaign across all our districts, designed to wipe away what students and educators are doing.  The same well-funded Zionist groups (e.g. The Brandeis Center) have filed lawsuits in multiple school districts and universities, using the threat of millions of dollars in legal expenses to demand the suppression of free speech. The US Congress has held hearings about anti-semitism on campuses (but never about anti-Muslim activities, much less about what is happening in Gaza) to intimidate school officials.  The Berkeley superintendent was ordered to appear at a hearing over “a disturbing number of anti-semitic incidents” in Berkeley schools.

We need a coordinated campaign to defend educators and students being targeted— and we all need to know what is happening in districts besides our own.  Retaliation is almost certainly happening in more school districts, and we all need to hear about it, and to find ways to stand in solidarity across districts.  Our unions need to defend members’ rights to free speech and the union’s right to express its collective opinion. If intimidation leads to silence, the Zionists and the reactionaries who support them will have won, and these rights will be lost.

David  de Leeuw, OUSD retired

OUSD: Non-reelected for requesting a permit

In OUSD, a probationary teacher, Kevin Sun, was non-reelected and will not be allowed to return to teaching computer science at Oakland High School.  The district doesn’t have to give any reason for firing a probationary teacher— but in this case the reason is all too clear.  Kevin was never evaluated by an administrator in his whole first year.  When asked about reasons for releasing him, the principal referred to some sticky notes on a report by a district “coach”.  Students and staff signed a petition asking that he be retained.  Kevin’s real educational flaw?  He filed a request for the use of OUSD facilities for a Labor for Palestine meeting. The request was approved, but when participants showed up on Saturday morning, OUSD had ‘cancelled’ the request on short notice, violating its own policies about community use of school facilities.  The district claimed that this was due to lack of staff— but then allowed another group to use the same facilities that afternoon!

The OUSD educator union, OEA, had endorsed Labor for Palestine.  OEA needs to see Kevin’s firing as an attack on the union. An appeal of the firing has been filed with PERB, and  OEA should argue that Kevin was fired for union activity— one of the few reasons for which a district is not allowed to release a probationary employee.  If the district’s response to a union resolution is to find someone to fire over that issue, the members’ right to collectively speak out about issues will be severely compromised. OEA, and all of our unions, and all of us, need to defend our right to say things our districts would rather erase.

BUSD: Witch Hunt Follows Demonstration

Following a pro-Palestine student demonstration at Berkeley High in February, BUSD questioned and intimidated educators over their support for the demonstration.  But the witch hunt didn’t immediately follow the demonstration— it only began months later, after a suit was filed against the district for ‘anti-semitic incidents’.  Teachers were called in to individual meetings with administrators and asked whether they had participated, whether they had encouraged students, whether they had allowed students to use materials, whether they had posted pro-Palestine materials on their classroom walls, and much more.  They were even asked “Who invited you to the demonstration?”.  Shades of  McCarthy hearings in what the district describes as a city that is a ‘home of free speech’!  

Eric Norberg, an art teacher and muralist, was put on administrative suspension (a procedure which is not in the Ed Code)— and he still is. Other teachers defied the witch hunt— by requesting that they also be investigated, by answering “Yes” to every question, and by telling the district that many of the questions were ‘none of your business’— but the attempt to intimidate was clear.  

The superintendent was called to testify in Washington— not over the suppression of  free speech but over  a failure to curb ‘anti-semitic incidents’, most of which turn out to be parent complaints about intimidation which were never documented, or denunciations of Zionism but not of Jews. The president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers called on members to ‘support the superintendent’, without mentioning the suspension or the intimidation being supervised by the superintendent or denouncing the attack on members.

Cal Care CalCare Charter Schools Class Size Community Schools Contracts COVID Democracy FCMAT ICE Inequality Math Organizing Palestine PERB Privatization School Closures School Finance Special Education Statewide Action Strikes STRS Teaching vouchers We Can't Wait