The Los Angeles Unified School District has found three teachers at Canoga Park High School created a “hostile environment” for Jewish and Israeli students through sustained pro-Palestinian political advocacy in classrooms and school programs.
The district’s Office of Student Civil Rights concluded the unnamed instructors — identified only as Teacher 1, 2 and 3 in its report — violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and a California law against biased instruction. Investigators stressed that criticism of Israel and support for Palestine “do not, by themselves, establish Title VI discrimination.” What crossed the line, they determined, was teachers using their authority, class time and school programs to repeatedly push the same political message.
Teacher 1, the school’s dance instructor and adviser to its Students for Justice in Palestine club, drew the bulk of investigators’ scrutiny. She taught students about Palestinian resistance through the music, movements and history of their dances, and described her students as “taking a stand,” the report says. A May recital opened with a student introduction about destroyed schools and homes in Gaza that urged support for Palestine and the club. She then had students review the dance team’s YouTube recital playlist — which included selections framing Gazans as “martyrs” — for their graded final exam. The teacher denied operating the YouTube channel, while the principal said she did, the report found.
Investigators also found that she summoned 49 students from class to attend an SJP meeting in June, kept “Free Palestine” and genocide-related posters in her classroom windows all school year, and offered community-service hours for attending Gaza fundraising at her church. The district found no evidence she changed grades or penalized students who didn’t share her views.
Teacher 3 repeatedly tied Israel to genocide in class, with students recalling comparisons between Gaza and the Holocaust, the report stated. He filed videos titled “Is Israel Guilty of Genocide?” and “How Did the Nakba Happen?” in a folder labeled “Videos – The Armenian Genocide,” and urged students to join the SJP.
Teacher 2 kept three flyers in their classroom — one declaring “Israel kills! USA pays!!” and another blaming orphaned Palestinian children on “Israeli genocide on Gaza” — using them in lessons and reposting them after they were taken down, according to the principal.
All three wore keffiyehs while teaching and promoting the cause, the report said. The district stated that the finding rested on what the teachers said and did, “not on the keffiyehs alone.”
Investigators also faulted a principal-approved library display, built with the teachers’ help, that portrayed Palestinians “solely as victims” and Israel “solely as the aggressor.” The North American Values Institute, which filed the complaint, described it as a “mini-Gaza” exhibit featuring vehicles bearing the Star of David next to dead children.
The probe stemmed from a complaint by NAVI, filed with the Jewish Teachers Los Angeles and Emet Legal. NAVI said the district substantiated all 11 of its allegations.
“This determination establishes a national precedent for holding public school educators accountable when political activism replaces objective instruction,” NAVI founder and CEO David Bernstein said in a statement.
Ben Austin, NAVI’s California director and a former member of the California State Board of Education, praised the district’s “thorough investigation,” but warned “this is clearly not an isolated incident.”
“The LAUSD and districts throughout California must promulgate policies to codify these findings,” Austin said.
Amy Leserman, chair of JewTLA, said her group filed public records request “that helped break this case open.”
The district ordered the flyers, posters and videos pulled by Oct. 29. By Nov. 18, SJP advisers must be limited to “non-participatory supervision” and the dance team’s YouTube channel put under administrative oversight. All faculty and administrators must be trained on Title VI and preventing antisemitism by Dec. 18, and the three teachers will be observed afterward. The report said lessons on genocide and current events are still allowed if they meet state standards and avoid “employee political advocacy.”
“The District investigates complaints under the Uniform Complaint Procedures process in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and issues findings and corrective actions consistent with those standards,” a spokesperson told the California Post. “As these matters may include student or personnel information, confidentiality laws preclude sharing additional information.”
The district declined to say whether the teachers are still in the classroom.
