California school district warns teachers about planned pro-Palestinian 'teach-in'
A school district superintendent in Northern California issued a warning to teachers planning to hold a pro-Palestinian "teach-in" this week, saying the lesson plan is not aligned with the district's teaching protocols.
Oakland Unified School District Superintendant Kyla Johnson-Trammell issued a statement on the matter without specifically calling out the organizers of the planned Wednesday event, FOX San Francisco reported.
"I want to again make clear that our expectation is that all educators, in every classroom across the District, take seriously their responsibility to adhere to principles of education, and to keep their personal beliefs out of the classroom," Johnson-Trammell said.
She further warned them to use "caution and discretion" when deciding whether an issue is suitable for class study.
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The "teach-in" comprises a pro-Palestinian curriculum that asks elementary school-age children to draw what they think a Zionist leader looks like and the definition of a massacre.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the school district.
The warning came after a YouTube video and curriculum began circulating last week regarding a teach-in for every student during the school day on Wednesday.
In the video, a man identified by the news network as Lincoln Elementary School teacher Jacob Fowler, invites all educators to use the Palestine curriculum.
"You are fortunate enough to play a small role in helping shape the next generation," he said in the video.
He explained the event is the use of "labor power." He noted that those who participate will be engaging in a "form of resistance" because Palestine is no longer taught as part of "ethnic state standards."
Some of the curriculum asks students to draw images of Zionist leaders and some materials use WWII-era propaganda graphics, like a British colonizer with octopus arms grabbing all the land and giving it to Israel.
The materials also imply that Israel is responsible for massacres and that Zionists are colonizing oppressors, terms that the Anti-Defamation League views and other Jews view as antisemitic, the news report said.
One sheet asks students to draw the Zionist leaders of Israel.
"During World War II, many Jewish people were killed and mistreated. The world wanted to make sure that never happened again. Unfortunately, the Zionists used it to justify displacing and killing Palestinians," how one piece of material describes the Holocaust.
Worksheets for students in the third to fifth grades don't mention the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. One worksheet described how Israelis told 1.1 million Palestinians to move or else they would be subjected to bombings.
However, the material doesn't mention that Israel has repeatedly warned Palestinians in northern Gaza to move south amid its airstrike campaign and that the Israel Defense Forces have been targeting Hamas terrorists and tunnels.
"It should not be controversial to teach history and current events," Zahra Billoo, executive director for the Council of American Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area, told KTVU-TV. "Teachers are doing what they think is best for their students and responding to the realities on the ground."
Education officials, particularly at college campuses, have come under fire since the war between Israel and Hamas began over the actions of students and educators. Many have organized or participated in pro-Palestinian protests and made antisemitic remarks.
Josh Diamant, who is Jewish and a music teacher at Lincoln Elementary School, said the lesson plans for the teach-in misrepresent history.
"It misrepresents what Zionism even is," he told the news station. "It reduces this incredibly complex conflict to simplistic slogans."
"It's putting me in the position to set the record straight," he added. "I'm not an expert on the Middle East. I'm a music teacher."