SCOOP: District says San Jose public school didn’t discriminate in assignment asking if Hamas members are terrorists or freedom fighters

The Campbell Union High School District in California found that a sociology assignment at Leigh High School in San Jose, which asked if Hamas members are “freedom fighters” or terrorists, did not discriminate against Jewish and Israeli students. The district concluded that “disagreement with instructional judgment alone does not establish discrimination or harassment.” The complaint, filed on May 12, alleged a “discriminatory and hostile educational environment.” The district’s July 2 finding stated that the class examines controversial topics and the Hamas question was one of two open-ended questions. The teacher, whose name was redacted, told the district the question was not discussed in class and students were not pressured to answer in a particular way. While acknowledging a “professional practice concern regarding the framing of the question,” the district found no evidence of discrimination or harassment, noting that “the investigation did not find evidence of any students who identified as Jewish or Israeli-American being impacted by the assignment.”