Remarks made during an online forum discussing ethnic studies by San Mateo Union High School District Trustee Jennifer Jacobson has raised concerns by the district’s teachers’ union, that believes the comments were divisive, undermining and worthy of censure.
In a public forum Feb. 25, hosted by the Israeli-American Civic Action Network, educational leaders including Jacobson, along with concerned parents and students, and nonprofit representatives, spoke to the desire for the implementation of ethnic studies to be paused, or thrown out altogether.
At the forum, Jacobson shared that she would rather the course be an elective, but said the district has “embedded it into every level of education and the majority of board members have signaled unwavering support for it.” The district began offering an ethnic studies course before it was required.
Craig Childress, president of the San Mateo Union High School District Teachers Association, sent a letter to the board ahead of its meeting Feb. 27, outlining reasons to censure Jacobson after what he described was a message of “divisiveness, distrust, disdain and blame.” He felt Jacobson’s comments at the ethnic studies forum were a call for action against the district and its teachers.
“I’m truly disgusted,” Childress said. “In 32 years of service, I have never observed a more overtly subversive and destructive act of any San Mateo Union High School District official than what was presented during that time.”
In the forum, Jacobson advised others to “not be afraid to raise complaints to school administrators” or file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights if they encounter problematic content. Specifically, Jacobson refers concerned parents to Board Policy 6144, which refers to the discussion of controversial topics in classes.
At the board meeting, Jacobson said she shared these avenues “not as a threat, but affirmation of existing processes.”
As discussion of Israel and Palestine remains ongoing and teachers attempt to discuss the political, historical and ethnic context surrounding the international conflict in ethnic studies, newly introduce Assembly Bill 1468 looks to limit these topics in an effort to avoid instances of antisemitism. Jacobson said the nature of ethnic studies suggests controversial topics will be discussed often.
Since teachers do not have “someone looking over their shoulder,” the only way to see if they are complying with board policies is through complaints and subsequent investigations, Jacobson said.
At the board meeting Feb. 27, Trustee Ligia Andrade Zúñiga said the remarks Jacobson made were in “a sentiment of division and mistrust for educators.”
In addition to the seeming distrust, Childress said Jacobson’s comments will have a financial effect on the district’s general fund.
“Trustee Jacobson championed and advocated for derogatory actions that would undoubtedly harm the district,” Childress said. “Actions that would unnecessarily divert resources, both personnel and funding, away from the classroom.
Though acknowledging Jacobson’s entitlement to free speech, Childress said it was “unbelievable” that a sitting trustee would “invite harm” on the district and community and urged decisive action be taken.
“It is unconscionable, it is a dereliction of duty, it is a failure to represent the true wishes of her area constituents,” Childress said.
Jacobson identified herself as a trustee and parent at the ethnic studies forum, but said she was not speaking on behalf of the district.
Around 10 members of the public, including some from other districts, voiced support for Jacobson at the meeting and she rejected the desire to censure her, stating free speech, even if it’s uncomfortable, is a cornerstone of democracy.
Jacobson noted a similar matter occurring within the Palo Alto Unified School District where a trustee raised concern over ethnic studies, and following controversial statements the trustee made, was asked to resign. The trustee remains on the board.
“It sort of feels like there’s a uniform response from educators when board members raise these questions about ethnic studies,” Jacobson said. “Let’s run an intimidation campaign, let’s unseat this board member instead of engaging in good faith dialogue.”
Trustee Greg Land said the allegations against Jacobson were damning and proposed the district coordinate with its attorneys to consider whether censuring Jacobson is an appropriate or necessary avenue.
“I hope they don’t,” Jacobson said. “I think we have more important matters to discuss as a board that relate to students and student achievement. These antics are a distraction.”
(10) comments
The US, UK, EU, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Canada recognize Hamas as a Terrorist Org. Do the students know this ? SMUHSD_PRA001859
I support Jacobson in her efforts to communicate board policies to the community in this context (and in all contexts, for that matter). Efforts to censor her for doing so equates to extremism (this time from the Left), a violation of freedom of speech, and a threat to our cherished democracy that is based upon that freedom. if we readily extinguish voices that remind parents of existing board policies because we disagree with the underlying content, we are no better than extremism on the Right. For context, I self-categorize myself as progressive who works hard on climate action, LGBTQIA+ rights, and women's rights. I was in full support of Kamala for President. My parents were public school administrators and educators for their entire careers, and I have the deepest respect for public school education and all that it represents. Yet efforts to censor Jacobson in this context are inappropriate at best and anti-democracy at worst. Thank you, Jacobson, for standing strong in the middle of unjust calls for your censorship.
Jon Mays - I’d like to point out that the hardcopy of yesterday’s paper (which I only saw Saturday AM unfortunately) had a major titling error. On page 27 the continutation text for the CENSURE article was under the BILL heading and vice versa for the continuation of the BILL article.
I also tracked down the source video for the Israeli-American Action Network ethnic studies forum. It is available at https://youtube.com/live/X0cUZ3v9b9M Ms. Jacobson particpated in a section of the discussion that starts a about 1 hr, 25 min., 40 seconds (1:25:40) into the two and a half hour long forum. Ms. Jacobson’s remarks begin at about 1:37:20 and end at about 1:47:05.
After her remarks, the meeting organizer Dillion Hosier speaks for a few minutes, and between 1:48:34 to 1:49:20 he mentions getting the new Trump Administration nominee for the Office of Civil Rights involved following their confirmation.
The idea of getting the Trump administration involved in local school board issues sickens me, and Hosier mentions that this is a threat that they hope they will not have to use. The fact that he already appears to have the ball rolling on this prior to Trustee Jacobson’s remarks, however, indicates that there have been sufficient concerns on the part of Jewish-American groups about the ethnic studies curriculum for some time, and Trustee Jacobson’s remarks alone are NOT the catalyst for this discontent.
I am clearly an “old fogey” over 70 years old now, but when my generation went to public K12 school, hot political topics were kept out of high school to a large extent and saved for college level courses. This started breaking down as the Vietnam War dragged on and school has become more blatantly political until we arrived at the present day where half of our country appears to hate the other half. I substitute taught in the SMUHSD over a decade ago before getting full time teaching assignments elsewhere, and there is little doubt in my mind that Trustee Jacobson raises legitimate concerns about the extent of this political polarization in public education.
I strongly believe, however, that we need to keep ALL partisanship, both left AND right, out of public education to the maximum extent possible. The increasing levels of chaos and fanaticism in our country are DIRE WARNINGS in this regards.
If the SMUHSD Board starts feeling the heat from this, they have only themselves to blame for letting partisanship run out of hand for so long. Trustee Jacobson has every right to protest, as do people in favor of the ethnic studies curriculum, and the move to censure Ms. Jacobson is clearly misguided.
However, both sides need to step back, take a deep breath, and negotiate a compromise instead of adopting the “my way or the highway” attitude that is currently so prevalent. I think most parents have a right to be concerned that teaching hot button topics to 9th grade students can easily turn into indoctrination if teachers start pushing their own political views in a classroom.
There were a lot more than 10 parents and community members waiting on the call, but we were not allowed to speak. Trustee Jacobson was pointing out the due process for parents who want to advocate for their students. These ethnic studies courses while well meaning, are divisive. At a minimum, it should be an elective, but really given pandemic learning loss, schools should really focus on subjects like reading and math.
Interesting to suggest filing complaints with the DOE, which is being dismantled by Musk/tRump as we speak.
The DOE is not being dismantled, it’s being fixed and if in the end id dismantling is the right fix, then so be it.
Making parents aware of a procedure or board policy should not warrant the censure of a school board member. Jacobson's questioning elements of a required curriculum, even if not in alignment with her fellow board members or the teachers' union, is not a step beyond. As with any elected body, our school boards need to work together to further our communities and not point fingers at one another.
Well said, Not So Common and MichKosk. I applaud Ms. Jacobson’s advice to, “not be afraid to raise complaints to school administrators” or file complaints with the Office of Civil Rights. In fact, I’d recommend doing a bit of research to see if there are federal departments, such as the Department of Education, where complaints may also be filed. Perhaps even against the district teachers union.
This way of thinking is on page 1 the democrat playbook. The only divisiveness is coming from the individuals who don't like free speech and are trying to intimidate and censor Jacobson because she does not agree and walk lock step with the liberals.
Exactly. The over the top rhetoric from the teachers' union president is simply an attempt to shut down speech they don't like. Those who wish to censor speech are never on the right side of history. I hope the board ignores this waste of time and money.
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