Three keffiyeh-wearing teachers at a Los Angeles high school pushed pro-Palestinian political messaging through dance recitals, classroom flyers and classroom lessons — creating a “hostile environment” for Jewish and Israeli students, investigators found.
The LA Unified School District’s Office of Student Civil Rights concluded the teachers at Canoga Park High School violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and a California law barring biased instruction, according to its findings.
The probe stemmed from a complaint by the North American Values Institute (NAVI), filed with the Jewish Teachers Los Angeles and Emet Legal. NAVI said the district substantiated all 11 of its allegations. The report doesn’t name the teachers, referring to them Teacher 1, 2 and 3.
Investigators stressed that criticism of Israel and support for Palestine “do not, by themselves, establish Title VI discrimination.” What crossed the line, they said, was teachers using their authority, class time and school programs to repeatedly push the same message.
The bulk of the probe’s findings centered on Teacher 1, the school’s dance instructor and adviser to its Students for Justice in Palestine club.
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, according to the report. 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, according to the report.
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 SPJ.
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.” NAVI described it as a “mini-Gaza” exhibit featuring vehicles bearing the Star of David next to dead children.
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, the findings said.
Additionally, 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.”
“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.”
LAUSD declined to elaborate.
“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 say whether the teachers are still in the classroom.
