Bravo. At last, some pushback against what is a nationwide problem.
“Newton Residents Sue City’s School Committee, Superintendent of Schools, Principals and Teachers For Discrimination Against Jews and Israelis,” Americans for Peace and Tolerance, March 19, 2019:
Ideological/Political Curriculum Teaches Propaganda Instead of Facts
NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS. On March 12, 2019, Newton taxpayers filed a lawsuit in Middlesex Superior Court against the Newton School Committee, Superintendent of Schools David Fleishman, the principals of the Newton high schools, and certain high school history teachers. Plaintiffs are asking for a court order that would compel Newton school officials to stop indoctrinating students with anti-Semitism, bigotry against Israel, and Islamist religious dogma as part of the high school history curriculum. This suit was made necessary because the embattled school administration is shielding its teachers from scrutiny and refusing to supervise what is being taught in its classrooms. The taxpayers claim that Newton Public Schools (NPS) has deliberately failed and refused to comply with the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution, with the Massachusetts Student Anti-Discrimination Act, and with civil rights regulations that require schools, through their curricula, to encourage respect for the human and civil rights of all individuals regardless of race, identity, religion, color, sex, and national origin.
The extensively documented 469 page legal complaint, available here, details the lengthy history of Newton residents’ efforts to have NPS address and correct the factually flawed teaching. Plaintiffs and their attorney were provided with an enormous volume of factual documentation by Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) Executive Director Ilya Feoktistov, whose investigations over the past several months formed the basis of this action.
“In looking for the sources of the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel bigotry in the Newton curriculum, we discovered a few bad apple teachers who view their teaching positions as giving them license to promote their personal political agendas,” said Mr. Feoktistov. “We are also looking closely at a common pattern with these politicized teachers – most, if not all, have taken professional development courses developed with foreign funding by the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.”
“Newton history teachers and school administrators must think either that anti-discrimination laws do not apply to them, or that these laws do not protect their Jewish and Israeli students,” said the President of APT, Charles Jacobs. “There is no academic freedom to brainwash students with fake history and pro-Arab or anti-Semitic propaganda that is, these days, alarmingly too common on the left in America.”
Evidence described in the complaint shows how Newton teachers teach that Jews and Christians deliberately forged their holy texts to contradict the Muslim Quran; that Zionism has “little connection” to Jewish history in “Palestine;” that the Jews took advantage of the Holocaust to gain sympathy for Zionism at the expense of “Arab plight;” and that the Israelis treat the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews. After being taught all this, students are asked to debate whether there should be a one or two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Karen Hurvitz, attorney for the taxpayers, stated that her clients are not asking for money damages, even though defendants have certainly caused years of incalculable damage by their insistence on teaching impressionable students materials that slander Israel and Jews. “This is the type of teaching that leads to anti-Semitism – and it has. The taxpayers here are merely asking NPS to perform their duties and obey the law, which requires that their curriculum encourage respect for all people. Education should be based on fact, not on stereotypes and propaganda.”
Emilie Green says
Plaintiffs’ counsel must be prepared to counter Brown v. Hot, Sexy and Safer Productions, Inc. (a case from the First Circuit which encompasses Massachusetts),
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-1st-circuit/1014792.html
“If all parents had a fundamental constitutional right to dictate individually what the schools teach their children, the schools would be forced to cater a curriculum for each student whose parents had genuine moral disagreements with the school’s choice of subject matter. We cannot see that the Constitution imposes such a burden on state educational systems, and accordingly find that the rights of parents as described by Meyer and Pierce do not encompass a broad-based right to restrict the flow of information in the public schools.”
To this language the court appended Footnote 6 which reads in part, “The court in Alfonso did hold that the parental right to direct the upbringing of their children was fundamental and that it was violated by a program providing for condom distribution at a public high school. However, the court’s holding specifically distinguished the condom distribution program from exposure ‘to talk or literature on the subject of sexual behavior,’ finding that the latter claim would ‘falter in the face of the public school’s role in preparing students for participation in a world replete with complex and controversial issues.’”
William Burke says
The courts of the state of Mass and the federal courts are highly politicized. They will always rule against conservative / traditional morals and values and will always rule in favor of state-ism – big government’s ability to run your life against your will. Plaintiff’s counsel must take these factors into consideration as, the state courts and local federal courts will have no ethical problem making bad law and terrible legal precedent when ruling against the plaintiffs.
William F. Swiggart (@BillSwiggart) says
Haven’t read the case, but possibly it doesn’t apply because the plaintiffs allege that (a) the offending teachings were factually incorrect and (b) were targeted against a particular ‘race, identity, religion, or national origin’.
Bob
ArcadiaP says
The parents are in their rights to protest what they consider propaganda and the twisting of history. That is a violation of the students protection from lies and deception. This is a much more profound suit. You can’t even compare this to condoms and trivial matter that do not in fact influence young minds who trust that their teachers are informed and not bribed. No?
James E Epstein says
This case is unique. Carefully read the complaint. It is NOT predicated upon the US Constitution. It is uniquely predicated essentially solely upon State Statues and Regulations (enacted in Massachusetts). It will prevail.
James E Epstein says
Correction “…State Statutes…”
eduardo odraude says
“We cannot see that the Constitution imposes such a burden on state educational systems, and accordingly find that the rights of parents as described by Meyer and Pierce do not encompass a broad-based right to restrict the flow of information in the public schools.”
They cannot see the First Amendment? They’ve never heard of school choice? They haven’t noticed that many European nations permit families to freely choose which school and what kind of curriculum their children will attend? Government school boards control schooling in many parts of the US, but they should not be doing so. They should not even exist.
mortimer says
Yes, agree: “At last, some pushback against what is a nationwide problem.” But it’s not just an American problem … America shelters about 40% of the Jews in the world. Approximately 38% live in Israel. Most of the remaining Jews live in Europe.
Almost no Jews are in Muslim-majority countries. Do America’s globalist secular Jews ever ask themselves why Jews are abandoning France and Sweden?
Do American secular Jews think that Jews fleeing Islamic persecution in Europe are ‘Islamophobic’?
Where will American Jews go if the LEFTARD-ISLAMIC AXIS turns against Jews even more than now?
sienceofreligion says
By misstake I was added in a closed arabic Group on FB. A lot to say what I Heard, read and statmentes over messneger and photos I saw. But when it comes to how theese Young gyes living on Gaza, they were “moderate” muslims. I had it written in chattes but more authentic, statements on the phone. It was cristal clear that; ALL JEWES MUST OUT OF ISRAEL. ISRAEL`S LAND BELONGS TO MUSLIMS ONLY!
I asked if that was the mainstream opinion. Oh yes absolutely they said. For us that is imoprtant since the land is given to muslims only.
What if some one from west should say that. Then we are nazists, extremists etc.
Agostino Armo Pellegrini says
I think what’s happening is the situation with islam is getting so bad that people are finally having to fight back. It would be so much easier not to, and we just watched tv and drank our tea and beer, but I think most of us are saying “enough is enough.”
And we know where so much of this antisemitism comes from: the culture and religion of islam and the people who live it. I think good people are finally beginning to realize just how influential islam is in disseminating this hate, even if islam isn’t specifically mentioned as the motivating cause people still know where it comes from. It’s not just the terrorism muslims do which is bad enough, it’s the sharia infiltration and the inherent bigotry it brings, and the leftist-controlled media who support islam’s hatred of the Jews and false claims of “islamophobia” which is itself is a bigoted made-up term meant to slander and deceive. Pro islam/anti-Jewish sentiments are popping up everywhere, due in great part to the anti-semitism of islam that the left so dearly loves and protects. People aren’t dumb in this Internet age, the mainstream media has lost their credibility and we can see the truth all too well in digital form. We see what’s happening in Europe and elsewhere regarding islam and muslims and we aren’t falling for that “religion of peace” crap any more. I don’t want to end up like the UK, for example, with epidemic rape by muslim gangs, and scary enclaves that police won’t enter, and thriving sharia “courts” that undermine native laws, and the totalitarian suppression of free speech, and violent crime spiraling out of control like in London–that lost city… As long as muslims continue to honor and love their doctrines of hate and bigotry we can expect the same outcome here in America too.
So I personally laud the efforts of these “taxpayers” in this suit, I know it’s most certainly grounded in truth because we see this kind of hate growing in Europe and America. Are there other folks that hate Jews too, like neo-Nazis? Of course, but none of them come close to the hatred of muslims who teach their children on national television to recite hateful verses toward the Jews. That’s not much different from what the Nazis did for Hitler, brainwashed their kids for racial superiority and blaming the Jews, and we all know how that turned out. Islam is no better, not in my mind.
gravenimage says
Yes–fine post, Agostino.
Beverly says
You should sue for money. Money makes people sit up and take notice. Asking them to be nice is just a waste of time.
carpediadem says
I agree. They need to feel pain for it to have an effect. Horowitz recommends this.
But most Jews just want the hate to stop.
somehistory says
“view their teaching positions as giving them license to promote their personal political agendas,”
**********************************************
This is the overwhelmingly “normal” attitude with those who are promoting islam. The moslim creeps in Congress are doing the same thing there…using their new positions in the Congress “to promote their personal political agendas.” cair presumes “authority” they don’t have, to promote in the halls of government, islam.
It’s good the parents are asserting their God-given rights to determine what their children are taught. It is a little known fact that the Constitution gives parents authority over the education of their children, just as it is little recognized that the Constitution just enumerates the Rights given to humans by God.
gravenimage says
Massachusetts parents sue public school officials and teachers for discrimination against Jews and Israelis
…………………..
*So* glad to see this–but disgusted that it is necessary.
Rarely says
Professional development courses funded in part by Qatar and Saudi Arabia??? Care to speculate on the content of such courses vis-a-vie Mid-East history among other sensitive topics?
This is all going to end very badly unless the education system straightens itself out. Don’t count on it.
eduardo odraude says
“Professional development courses funded in part by Qatar and Saudi Arabia???”
That is truly obscene. Can you imagine if, say, in 1935, some US public school teachers took part in professional development courses funded in part by Nazi Germany? Or funded by the Stalinist Soviet Union?
eduardo odraude says
School and state need to separate.
eduardo odraude says
David Wood four-part video series brilliantly critiques an ABC/Diane Sawyer show about Islam.
Below is part 2, but all four parts of this David Wood video series are great and show that Diane Sawyer, ABC, and Irshad Manji have no idea what they’re talking about (or do know but are liars).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KRj5KqMFCI
saf says
Goals 2000.. illegally put forth with the US Government pushing it… it passed under the Clintons with lies and fraud at every school district across the nation… that marked the day of SOCIALISM, AMERICA HATE, NO HISTORY being taught per se. Communists across the nation celebrated… and then one by one teachers who were unwilling to “facilitate” outcome based education were forced out through reassignment of class and early retirement. Parents opposed to Goals 2000 had their names taken by PTA members. You now have the Muslim Brotherhood writing the “religious” education which was re-introduced to schools 12 yrs ago (approximately) under the guise of literature. I read the school district’s religious teachings where I am and it read : The Bible is just a lot of stories… the Jewish Religion Old Testament is ancient, but the one Holy Religion is Islam… what we see now, find out who you cannot talk ill of and you will know who rules you.