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The Sequoia Union High School District will be teaching students and training staff about antisemitism as part of a $325,000 settlement in a lawsuit that alleged the district discriminated against Jewish students.
The suit was filed in November 2024 by the families of six students from Woodside and Menlo-Atherton high schools. The lawsuit alleged that the district and its staff created a hostile environment for Jewish students as antisemitism began to rise with the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Besides paying the families of the students $325,000, the settlement agreement makes it mandatory for every administrator, teacher, coach and staff member to complete an annual antisemitism training course and prohibits teachers from using supplemental curriculum about the Israel-Palestine conflict without clearance from an independent agency. Starting this fall, world history students also will be taught about the history of antisemitism and what it looks like today.
The district also agreed to implement a new process to review and respond to complaints involving antisemitic actions and will have an independent agency oversee its compliance with these agreements through June 2029.
“We are committed to providing all students with a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment free from discrimination, harassment and bullying, and we have zero tolerance for antisemitism, or any form of discrimination, harassment, intimidation or bullying,” said Superintendent Crystal Leach in a district press release.
Omer Beck, a former Woodside student, said the settlement feels like “justice for all students who were experiencing discrimination within the district.” He told The Almanac that it was common to hear students casually make remarks about each other’s nationalities, race and ethnicity.
Beck shared that he was kicked out of the school’s Freedom Club during his junior year — a club that was advertised as a space to learn about Palestinian culture, something he was interested in. During the first meeting, he said he found the club to be welcoming and light-hearted, but the second meeting was the complete opposite.
“The teacher, who was running the club, was lecturing about the political aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was a very dramatic change,” Beck said.
While he believed the video fairly explained the international conflict, Beck said he was surprised to hear the teacher make his own claims that “Jewish people were terrorists and ethnic cleansers.” Beck spoke up to share that he didn’t think these claims were true and was later told that his opinions weren’t valued.
At the next meeting, Beck was accused of collecting evidence on other students while he was working on college applications. He said he was kicked out of the classroom and told not to come back.
“After I was kicked out, it was made very clear that Jewish students were no longer welcome in that classroom, and it was very disturbing. It felt like a blast from the past,” Beck said.
Omer’s father, Etai Beck, said that while discrimination is not new for the Jewish community, it was shocking to see that antisemitism still exists in modern times.
“We came here in 2008 to a very open global community that felt very safe and now all of a sudden it feels like we need to hide again,” Etai Beck said. “We can’t wear some of our signs. We don’t want people to know who we are.”
As a parent, he said he is happy with the settlement agreements and the district’s actions to implement real policies about curriculum and the review of complaints.
“There are a lot of teeth to this new arrangement, and I really hope that this becomes a story for all school districts throughout the entire country to understand that there are consequences for not keeping your students safe,” Etai Beck said. “It happens to us as part of the Jewish community today and it can happen to any other community in the future.”
The tax payers funds to pay yet another of multiple lawsuits does not fix the issue. This district can not be fixed until Leach , Hansen, Losekoot, Emmi, Rigotti, Charles and a whole board is removed and actually their activity sent to the district attorney to review for crimes against children, teachers and others. Having criminals overseeing themselves with law firms they pay who will only write what they know are actually trying to be trained “defensible documents “ is called a cover up. So if this is what citizens who are paying these crimes against many then it will be a running checkbook. No one is safe there with whom I’ve mentioned as they will lie cheat and do anything to save their own selves. So it’s great to read they paid victims but the problem is worst than cancer as these folks mentioned need a jail cell at best. Looks like I have a lot of work to still finish with our firms as we won’t let people suffer on folks tax payers waste money for nothing but problems
None of the discrimination will change until the superintendent is removed and a new board is elected. The accountability starts there, and then trickles down. Let’s just look at the results. This article is just one of many speaking on important issues that were ignored or unaddressed until people were hurt (emotionally, mentally, sometimes physically), or parents and groups were forced to sue, over and over again.
The same leaders are standing, overseeing all of this. Protecting each other from consequences and trying to maintain their positions (for whatever reason) while the community loses out on what they deserve. That doesn’t mean they don’t care about families or students or they don’t participate in good work. It means they are going for what is falling into their lap as a guaranteed success, and specifically not engaging with systemic issues properly which is a requirement of their positions, and even the law.
Every year people try to speak up in waves at different points. Staff leave and speak up on the way out. Some go to the news like this platform. It doesn’t really change anything, and things have become worse, because what hasn’t changed? The people in leadership positions or positions of influence who are causing a hostile work environment, forming cliques, intimidating staff into not wanting to speak out, are making it so systemic issues can’t be addressed properly. The entire district and every school is being held back by these types of individuals making the lives of teachers and students more difficult.
All of this means the board and superintendent had multiple chances and opportunities to prevent things from getting to this point. That is why I have no confidence that this won’t happen again. In my opinion, it feels like they just wanted to pay and get this over with. They will check off a few boxes and stress the teachers and students out with poor execution, poor communication, and things will settle back into the usual pattern of non-response to systemic issues.
I would love to have some hope but I can’t until I see a complete leadership change in SUHSD.