District settles antisemitism lawsuit

33 Comments

1. It’s good news that the anti-semitism is being acknowledged. Even better that teachers must clear any materials related to the conflict in Gaza with an independent reviewer during this era of activist teachers. And that the schools will be watched going forward. All a good sign that progressives gone off the rails can be brought to heel.

2. Palestinian, Arab brought to this country just teaching of hate and division . They know they could ignite old hate hidden in society. This is how it is done in their own schools in their various countries, this is how it is support their intense to continue and ignite a conflict instead of teaching how to resolve a conflict.

   • What are you all talking about?
     Imagine if it was forbidden to teach about the German holocaust. Or South African apartheid. Or American torture at Guantanamo. These things happened and teachers reference them. Israel is not immune from coverage or criticism. This settlement is another sad development in the long slow decline of America and the subordination of its liberal political values to the belligerent will of another country’s militant crusade. Anti Israel is not antisemitism. Nor is pro Palestine or factual recognition of a modern genocide.
     Please stop pushing your agenda on me

     • Joe Lutor is pretty slick. Did you notice how he slipped the “American torture at Guantanamo” into the list of atrocities teachers cover in class, as if it were an accepted fact? Joe, what’s your evidence if American torture at Gitmo? It’s never been proven in court or any other forum. It’s just one of those myths you’ll see on Blue Sky or broadcast by Rachel Maddow. But there’s no proof. Nobody likes going to jail, so they always accuse the jailers of misdeeds. Funny, though, how Joe laps up the myth and tries to pass it off as fact. Nice try.

       • Same as the genocide in Gaza? No proof on that one either, right? I may be right or wrong about Gitmo, but I surely am right about Gaza. And now Lebanon too. I’m not the one who pivoted from a hateful act in a local high school (illegal and hateful placement of a swastika) to a gag order on Gaza, requiring teachers to consult a private “truth committee” before discussing the foremost genocide of our time. Which I might add is being paid for right now with American dollars. Who’s the slick one? Don’t pick apart my posts to distract from the issue

         • Never mentioned Gaza. You’re changing the subject because you can’t defend the Gitmo comment.

         • You correct. There was definitely an attempted genocide by Gazans on October 7th 2023. Luckily, Israel was able to stop it in one day and make sure it won’t happen again.

3. SUHSD Superintendent Leach is not a people person and has difficulty articulating her stances in community-facing events. Hence parents are treated like a problem to be managed rather than as frontline stakeholders in their school communities whose input matters. The trustees are no better, they are not out and about in their districts much less the at-large student-age population in other SUHSD towns; they don’t investigate issues, they’re padding their resume by holding those seats, giving unquestioning thumbs up or thumbs down to agenda items. Perhaps the “Union” in S_U_HSD that is supposed to stand for “unified districts of several towns” needs to be broken apart because families are not being heard which leads to lawsuits and strife.

   • Absolutely correct! When do we all make a concerted effort to have her dismissed. Enough is enough!

4. “teachers must clear any materials related to the conflict in Gaza with an independent reviewer …” This is worrisome. Will genocide be a forbidden word? Many people still don’t distinguish between Jews and the Israeli government. It’s not antisemitic to criticize Israeli policies.

   • exactly the point! you can criticize the government not the ethnicity. are you blaming all Muslims for 9/11? are you blaming Chinese Americans for the Uyghur oppression? is there any other US citizen that needs to apologize for the action of a government of another country?

     • Americans must be the only people in the world who still buy into the official government/media narrative of 21 box-cutter-carrying muslims behind 9-11, even though those patsies took at most two flight lessons on single engine cessna airplanes (and left the country the day before on 9-10), were able to overpower military trained pilots, take over the cockpit, and perfectly hit their targets through dense NYC traffic when none of them ever flew those Boeing jet airplanes before, and no experienced pilot was able to successfully simulate flying into the towers, let alone twice. Yeah, keep believing the official narrative when the rest of the world knows it was another mossad inside job to start endless middle east wars for the exclusive benefit of Israel.

   • Today it’s anti-Israel, tomorrow it’s anti-Jew. I think the swastikas appearing at “No Kings” protests are just the beginning.

5. So sad that these teachers can’t do their jobs properly and just present the facts, show both sides of an issue and let the students make their own opinion.

   • Who said they didn’t? We’re just told that some students went home crying about the lesson making Israel look bad. Imagine though, how the Palestinian student who lost their brother, sister, grandmother, home or life feels. What lesson would be too hard for them? Or even worse to be told their teacher can’t discuss it. Gaza is a nightmarish hell for 2 million people and we did this (with a little help from our friend and only democracy in the Middle East). Of course teachers have to be able to teach this!! The denials have gone on too long and it’s un American.

     • Imagine how the Palestinian student whose sibling was a terrorist and butchered children in their beds after taking them feels when the teachers justify these actions feels.

6. What happens if a student asks a history teacher questions about the current conflicts in the Middle East? Let’s assume it’s part of a wider discussion about wars, or human rights, or geopolitics. Does the teacher now have to say, “Sorry Billy, I can’t answer that question until I run it by the “Independent Reviewer”.

   How will the “independence” of the reviewer be determined? That should be interesting.

   As a former history teacher, I did my best to handle controversy with the utmost objectivity, but history is rife with controversy and opposing viewpoints. Teachers, do your best to keep your politics to yourself. Parents and students, understand that no nation, religion, society, or form of government is infallible. We learn and improve by recognizing infallibility and fostering open respectful discourse amongst differing perspectives. Censorship usually does not end up benefitting any free society.

7. Mark, we wouldn’t need an “Independent Reviewer” if teachers had kept politics out of their lectures. This is in response to bad behavior by teachers. Teachers have shown that they need close supervision and rules. Too bad that they weren’t professional enough to have avoided this, but it’s their own fault. Maybe, after several years of good behavior, an “Independent Reviewer” can be removed. But teachers will have to earn that freedom. Our kids shouldn’t be preached to by radical ideologues.

8. So Sunny,

   A few “bad actors” in your view is enough to indict all teachers? I agree that teachers need extensive training and close supervision. How close? In my time, it usually took three years, under “close supervision”, for a teacher to earn tenure. Then evaluations happened at regular intervals. Yes, just like doctors, lawyers, airline pilots, police officers, engineers, and others, teachers should be regularly trained and monitored. There has been, in my experience, however, a breakdown of sorts in the system.

   I was not properly evaluated under the law in the final six years of my career. Nothing more than one or two cursory visits and some scribbled notes. No official documentation since 2015. Administrators, I suppose, were “too busy” with other priorities, or they had lost the ability to do a proper evaluation. I must assume my case was not isolated.

   The point being that if a teacher was a “radical ideologue” as you put it, then how did that person get through the “toll booth”? Please don’t say, “The radical leftist unions protect such teachers”. The truth is that such teachers (subs excluded), if they exist in large numbers, were approved by elected school boards and school administrators.

   I wonder how many parent and student complaints these so-called ideologues racked up. Usually, administrators will act if complaints mount against a teacher who goes over the line, but I’ve also seen administrators look the other way at times because they feared that their “hiring mistake” would be exposed and compromise their upward ambitions.

   That said, a blanket indictment against teachers: “Teachers have shown that they need close supervision and rules”, and the label “radical ideologues” is a bit dogmatic as well, don’t you think?

   • What an attitude! Glad he’s retired. The kids in his classes who had contrary opinions probably kept it to themselves out of fear that he would give them bad grades. I’m sure Mr. Allendorf will say that he was fair to all points of view. Sure, sure. The fact that somebody who says this stuff could hold his job for a number of years shows you how messed up the profession has become.

9. Teachers need close monitoring and their lesson plans should be approved by a neutral party. The defiance shown Allendorf shows how difficult this will be.

10. Defiance? So, asking questions and raising some concerns equates to defiance. Talk about “radical ideologues”. Gee Anonymous, maybe you and your cronies should select the “neutral party” so that they can bend to your will.

    Did you happen to notice that I am advocating for a better teacher evaluation process? Nonetheless, let’s talk logistics. Menlo Atherton High School has 120 full time teachers. There are 180 instructional days in a school year. Let’s assume a written lesson plan for every other day. 120 teachers times 90 lesson plans is almost 11,000 lesson plans per year subject to review. Pretty heavy load, don’t you think? Or is the idea to target specific teachers who seem to be “too radical”? Either way, I hope you can see why there are questions and concerns. Something tells me none of it matters to you if you get what you want.

    Once again, hyperbole (defiant) becomes the order of the day when substance lacks. I’m still curious to see how this whole “Independent Review” system works out, if that is okay with you.

11. The district teachers and students will never be safe so long as that administration and board remain. Having an outside lawyer alleged investigate is nothing more than having one of their own police themselves.
    Menlo atherton citizens are wasting time and money supporting corruption. It does not work. Thus you’ll see lawsuits continue as they still don’t claim to know who gave away a file. Seriously all these folks need to be in jail for their crimes against all races and this Leaxh her best talent is her goat.

12. Wow Sunny. Who has the attitude here? Please, add me to your teacher demonization hit list. It is actually an honor. I enjoy being pilloried by folks who detest honesty and logic. It just serves to validate what I am saying because it bothers you so much.

    By the way, not a single “radical teacher with an agenda’ complaint in my thirty year personnel file. No grades based on my political views either. Glad to be retired as well if you are the type of parent that is commonplace these days.

13. Sunny,

    Did I say that students were not wronged or mistreated? Did I say mistakes were not made by teachers or administrators? Did I say that all teachers are saints and their word is law? Did I say teachers should be free to promote their political beliefs and grade accordingly? Did I say the settlement reached was a miscarriage of justice?

    All I said is that there needs to be reforms in how teachers are evaluated because the system, at least in my former district, does not function properly. And for that you assault my character and reputation. I’m sorry if you can’t handle a perspective that does not fit your tight and intolerant narrative. You allege that I penalized students for not sharing my views and that I have lied about my classroom objectivity, neither of which is true. Basically you attack me for not agreeing with you 100%. Do you see the irony here Sunny?

14. This is the end of free speech at Sequoia high school, and the wave of censorship or “hate speech” laws is sweeping the country, with over 35 states enacting laws against “anti-semitism”. You’re not allowed to criticize jews, israel or question the holocaust fable. Goodbye First Amendment.

15. The superintendent is a bonafide idiot and the board is only invested in holding their seats for as long as possible because it’s the only platform for relevance they have. They also like the free trips to conferences and catered food. The new board members won’t rock the boat and both could seem to give a damn anyhow. The superintendent thinks parents and teachers are annoyances to be managed and that any complaints legitimized by law suits aren’t a big deal because our tax payer dollars will cover the bill. Can it seriously be a surprise that someone with the superintendents underwhelming background and upbringing would take on such as false sense of superiority towards teachers, families and communities while holding the purse strings of our schools and a budget that despite her alleged professional experience in budget and financial management let TIDE close as a result of an unforeseen budget shortfall. If we were really truly ticked off at her idiocy and incompetence we should have (still should) call for her immediate removal instead of letting her pass the buck and let her board take the hit (the boards budget committee is claimed to have made the recommendation for the school closure but they’d only have the insight from the chief operations person that reports to them- CRYSTAL LEACH). Speaking of Leaches, the lawsuit being won doesn’t change the fact that she doesn’t give a damn. She could have long since put corrective measures in place and held her team accountable but she didn’t. We’ve given her far too many passes and we need to collectively tally up her missteps and require the board to dismiss her before the new school year even begins! She’s never been qualified nor fit to run a school district (has never been a teacher, never been classified, barely has a decent education, and only recently grabbed the credentials needed to make more money in taking on the superintendent role and is certainly a narcissistic social class wannabe). How long will it take for us to get this fraudster out of our district and replace her with someone actually qualified and who really cares about the students, teachers, staff, families and communities!

16. It’s odd that this article doesn’t mention the fact that after the district pushed out their first black superintendent and then subsequently had an internal blow up with racist language spewing from multiple staff during one of their professional development sessions Crystal leach created the “Executive Director of People, Culture & Collaboration” position and placed Oyame KenZoe Brian J. Selassie in that position. (He was poached by Crystal from the San Mateo Community College District.) After he joined the district, he did his best to help initiate some sort of changes in the way cabinet handled these types of situations and pushed them (and especially Crystal Leach) to evolve. Unfortunately, once a racist, always a racist. Crystal wasted no time pushing him out of the district. His last day is June 30th and hasn’t been seen around the district office in weeks.

    It seems like an Executive Director of People, Culture & Collaboration is exactly what this district needs to move forward, but by eliminating that position, they’ve shown that they have no intent of evolving. Since Crystal has become the superintendent, they’ve done nothing but promote and hire straight white women, while pushing down and out LGBTQ+ and POC staff. The only thing notable that Crystal has done in her time there is help perpetuate the racist history of the Sequoia Union HS District.

17. I’m just shocked that the school district and its Board (public institutions) have rewarded private complainants with a veto power over what is taught by teachers. Let’s be honest, the result of this settlement is clearly intended to — and will — stifle discussion and teaching of what is arguably the biggest international conflict in the world right now. It’s quite possible that WWIII will break out in the middle east as a result of Israel’s actions towards the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. This is inevitably connected to the “Israel-Palestine Conflict” but this settlement only permits one side of that issue to be vetted authentically.

    It’s important to read the actual settlement document. (The writer included a linked PDF at the top of this article.) Sections 1.4, 4.1 and 5.2 make pretty clear that the censorship applies ONLY to the Palestinian perspective. Specifically, it requires a prior independent review for any use of teacher-supplied materials “addressing or referencing the Israel-Palestine conflict” — EXCEPT that no prior independent review is required for materials coming from five specific Jewish organizations – the Israel Emergency Alliance dba StandWithUs, CAMERA (“Fighting Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias in Education”), California Teachers Collaborative (established by the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center), the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the American Jewish Committee. Not surprisingly, the treatment of the Israel-Palestine conflict on each of these pages is entirely Zionist and pro-Israel. One has to struggle to even find mention of the struggles of the Palestinian people on any of these pages – and then only as purveyors of hate and attacks. The teachings cover the Holocaust, Guatemala, the Tutsi’s, the Armenians, and other recent clashes – but not even a nod to the maybe 100,000-200,000 dead Palestinians and the millions more being displaced RIGHT NOW TODAY. But the pro-Israel perspective is fully elaborated in many places.

    In my opinion, the Sequoia Union HS District has betrayed its public trust and core mission by entering into an agreement with private litigants that muzzles critical teaching of only one side of an important public issue.

    Of course I agree that anti-bias and anti-harassment school policies must protect Jewish students from real harassment (this is important to me personally) — as well as other ethnic and religious groups. But this settlement goes far beyond the protection against harassment, turning the victims into the aggressor and silencing all points of view that differ from the Zionist playbook.

    I say shame on the SUHSD for abdicating its public mission in favor of private interests. They have sold out free speech, diversity of opinion, and — yes, justice itself — in favor of the easiest “groupthink” of our time.

18. I was really skeptical with Crystal bringing in somebody who was supposed to be a DEI executive and ended up with a title like people, culture and collaboration. I was trying to keep track of his work and demeanor and honestly he was actually really good at his job and talking to him even for just a few minutes he’s really smart but most of all he was good for our district because he actually cared.

    He came to our school site sharing information related to the equity survey he created, and he had mapped out a grading system for us to be able to monitor the entire district’s progress related to equity and then from what I heard, all of a sudden his work was interrupted by Crystal.

    I also heard that Crystal was trying to use discrimination law as a reason to get rid of the affinity groups and use him to do it (her typical tactic for hiding her hand behind the doing of others). Instead, he seemed to have found the middle ground and exceptions in the law as a way to salvage affinity group so that they could at least still exist and not be completely erased by her. When I found out this information, I already knew that he wouldn’t last long with Crystal because he wasn’t going to just do her bidding like many of us thought he would. I told him myself that she’s using him as her token and he didn’t seem surprised he just said he was going to do the best with the situation he had to work with. We did warn him though that her support of equity wasn’t sincere and that she was using him though.

    I know of at least three other instances where his expertise related to equity likely saved the district a lot of embarrassment and bad press, but of course the fact that he was doing meaningful work didn’t matter to her.

    Many of us are actually exhausted by her poor leadership and even worse, making the reputation of the district seem as if all of us are racist when we all want her gone just as bad as the parents and community do. But if we are vocal about it to the board it would result in her and her cabinet retaliating against us as they’ve done with many of our colleagues. And we all know the first thing Crystal will do is try to say that because she has a biracial son, she’s exempt from being a racist, but we all know using her child as a token and shield for her racism, makes her racism all the worse. I think Dr. O’KenZoe is the second Black male with great education and experience that really cared about the District and that the District has asked to come help address its equity issues, but then parted ways with the other was a consultant.

    The real insult is they allegedly told him there was nothing wrong with his performance, but that the district just couldn’t afford him and that his dismissal is part of budget cuts but what’s odd is that as a “professional” who was our budget officer and now superintendent and the person who made the recommendation for him to come aboard to improve our equity work and reputation, how is it that all of a sudden a year and a half later we can’t afford him but we retained the school site principal at TIDE even though school was closed. She really thinks we are all too stupid to figure out these things. The bottom line is the district would’ve been better off to have kept him and at this point would be even better off getting rid of Crystal she’s unqualified, didn’t competitively interview for the position (because there were certainly better qualified people for the position), and she doesn’t have an ounce of teaching experience. We have an educational imposter serving as the leader of our district and it makes no sense. More people think Bonnie is leading and running the district than Crystal. She didn’t even take a leadership stance for the closure of TIDE instead she hid behind expensive consultants and her cabinet and staff– it was cowardice and a clear demonstration of how unfit she is as a leader and superintendent.

    It’s worth mentioning too that we’ve seen previous instances where Crystal claims because of budget cuts they needed to terminate the assistant Director of human resources (Freedom Siam) who they claim Crystal had a grudge against because he made a comment about how she often would use her biracial son as a deflection for being accountable for comments and practices that were essentially racist. We are all seeing the pattern here.

    She also recently got rid of the chief budget Officer Christine Gong (pushed her out and made her tell everyone she wanted to retire early but we all know it was forced) and the director of repograghics and procurement, Tony Crapo because he refused to execute a contract that allegedly Crystal wanted to give to one of her former supervisors without competitively bidding it and she didn’t want to do it herself or put the request in writing so she wouldn’t be tied to it. It’s also worth noting Gong and Crapo are Asian and Crapo and Selassie are LGBTQI advocates! I think Selassie is a neurodivergent advocate too as I’ve heard him mention it a few times.

    If the veteran and new board members can’t also see the pattern or see through whatever lies Crystal is feeding them so she’s able to keep her own job, then maybe we should do a vote against her, every cabinet member, and the entire board so that we have a chance to start with a completely clean slate that the students, families, community, and all district employee deserve.

    I would place my initials but because we all know that Crystal and her entire cabinet retaliate against people they’ll find a way to make me miserable like they’ve done others.

    Crystal Leach and that cabinet have to go!

19. I understand too that there are other cases of members on administrative leave because they spoke out.Coach Mo Menlo Atherton basketball boys coach is still home for now 2 years with no investigation completion.From the replies to this thread it seems alot deeper rooted issues are prevalent in this district. Such a waste for tax payers expenditure for attorneys

20. Last comment says it all. They don’t go the problems will continue to spread and end tax payers, students safety and teachers remain at risk daily.

21. Regarding Voach Molieri and OFA Taimani are waiting for their jobs
    Mike remains home on full paid leave for a file that rigotti gave away and she remains at school
    Being paid for the crime. OFA is waiting for lawyers to drag out the case so they can milk the citizen’s for finds when all know they will have to write huge checks as they can’t afford to be exposed although it’s to late . Everyone knows this district administration should all go up to chyrstal house and feed the goats as they are criminals and absolutely worthless let alone dangerous to children

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