Updated Nov. 6
The California Department of Education has determined that two more incidents in the Oakland Unified School District discriminated against Jewish students, on the heels of a similar finding of discrimination in the OUSD.
The new findings focus on two events: a Palestinian flag that flew on a flagpole from mid-October to mid-November 2023 at Fremont High School and a Dec. 6, 2023, “teach-in” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was organized by the teachers union during the school day and used anti-Israel materials.
On Oct. 24, the CDE determined that both incidents discriminated against Jewish students and that the district did not thoroughly investigate either one. Had it done so, it would have reached the same conclusion, according to two reports reviewed by J.
The findings came just days after a report in which the CDE determined that Middle East maps, which excluded Israel and were shared repeatedly by OUSD as educational material, were discriminatory.
The state’s findings bolster arguments made by a number of Jewish families that the city’s public schools became sites of anti-Israel activism and antisemitism after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel and that the district did not respond adequately to parents’ complaints.
The complaints, known as Uniform Complaint Procedures, were filed by the Oakland Jewish Alliance, a grassroots group that formed in late 2023. The alliance later appealed the district’s findings to the state.
Regarding the flag-raising and the teach-in, the state found that the district took more than a year to release the findings of its investigations, exceeding the time allotted for discrimination complaints. According to the California Code of Regulations, school districts must investigate and resolve such complaints within 60 days.
The state focused on the incidents and the district’s investigations into them.
The results of OUSD’s investigation into the flag-raising were released in May 2025. The district did not address whether the incident was discriminatory. The flag “was not a topic of classroom discussion” and therefore did not violate the district’s policies on teaching controversial issues, the district found.
The CDE disagreed, stating that evidence suggested the flag-raising, which occurred not long after Oct. 7, contributed to a “hostile or intimidating” environment for Jews.
“The Israeli flag was not included in what could be perceived as a show of [the school’s] support for a particular viewpoint in the conflict,” the state’s report said. “In this context, the evidence is consistent with a legal conclusion that the District contributed to a discriminatory environment for Jewish students and staff.”
The results of the district’s investigation of the teach-in were also released in May. While the district found that some materials shared during the teach-in included “highly charged terminology” that would have made Israeli or Jewish students feel “unsafe,” the district did not conclude that it was discriminatory.
In both the flag and teach-in incidents, the state concluded the district neglected to address the fundamental allegations of antisemitic discrimination. The CDE framed its decisions around the district’s failure to consider Jewish or Israeli perspectives.
In the teach-in, none of the materials organizers shared offered information on the Jewish or Israeli perspective on the conflict. OUSD did not authorize the teach-in or review the materials used. Regardless, the CDE found that the omission of Jewish or Israeli viewpoints “contributed to a discriminatory environment.”
At Fremont High School, apart from the fact that the school did not fly an Israeli flag along with the Palestinian flag, the timing was also significant, the state found. According to the CDE, the district’s investigation did not consider “whether flying the Palestinian flag on the school flagpole in the immediate aftermath of the events of Oct. 7, 2023, could create a hostile or intimidating environment for Jewish students or staff.”
More recently, a Palestinian flag was spotted outside the United for Success Academy, an OUSD middle school, on Oct. 3, 2025. This time, however, the flag was taken down the same day it was spotted by the school’s administration, according to emails to J. from the school’s principal and an OUSD spokesperson.
The district declined to comment on its response to the Oct. 3 incident, calling it a “pending legal matter” in an Oct. 22 email to J.
Oakland attorney Marleen Sacks, who files UCP complaints on behalf of the Oakland Jewish Alliance, is separately representing Jewish plaintiffs in a lawsuit against OUSD filed in Alameda County Superior Court.
Sacks agreed with the state’s determinations, noting in an Oct. 28 statement that they refute the district leaders who tried “to twist themselves into a pretzel to claim that these events were not discriminatory toward Jews and Israelis.”
She added that the teachers involved in the teach-in should still face discipline or termination.
The state recommends additional training in response to the flag raising and teach-in.
OUSD had already concluded that some corrective actions were necessary. In response to the flag incident, the district laid out plans to train its leadership on federal and state requirements regarding the display of flags at schools.
Regarding the teach-in, the district’s internal investigation identified 12 teachers who “likely participated,” all of whom denied taking part in it. OUSD determined it was not appropriate to discipline any specific employee. Instead, it committed to training district leaders on “identifying and responding to antisemitism.”
The CDE also assigned corrective actions for the district but did not go beyond imposing additional training sessions. The CDE sent a brief statement to J. on Oct. 28.
“The decisions speak for themselves,” spokesperson Elizabeth Sanders wrote. “A key objective of the CDE is to prevent incidents that resulted in findings from recurring.”
At least 30 Jewish families filed paperwork to transfer their children out of OUSD over concerns for their safety in the months after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. At least one parent told J. in early 2024 that the teach-in was a deciding factor in the decision to leave the school district.
Another couple, Simon and Lindsay Ferber, moved to Los Angeles in June 2024 after living in Oakland for 12 years. They told J. that they are encouraged by the state’s recent decisions but believe that there is more work to be done.
“These decisions prove that our voices can still be heard and can still prevail,” Simon Ferber wrote in a Nov. 2 email to J. At the same time, he said, antisemitism is “not just something that will disappear, but something we will have to continue fighting and putting guardrails in place to protect against.”
Jewish organizations hope a new law designed to combat antisemitism in public schools will have an impact statewide.
AB 715 was signed into law on Oct. 7 but continues to face strong opposition from some groups. The law, which is set to take effect Jan. 1, will establish a new office for an “antisemitism prevention coordinator” who will work directly with districts on how to address anti-Jewish bias.
Lindsay Ferber said that she is “cautiously hopeful” that the new law, along with the CDE’s recent actions, will encourage the OUSD to improve its environment for its Jewish students.
OUSD provided a statement to J. after the publication of this article, saying the district will be holding trainings for staff in response to the CDE findings.
“The District takes allegations of antisemitism or any form of discrimination seriously,” an email from communications director John Sasaki said. “Because of the recent findings by the California Department of Education (CDE), we will begin additional trainings in December in response to antisemitism specifically, and addressing hatred more broadly.”
Sasaki also addressed the flag-raising and the teach-in, acknowledging that the district has additional “work to do” to combat antisemitism.
“While the District has taken intentional steps to combat antisemitism, we still have much work to do. Major incidents such as the ‘teach in’ and hard-copy materials that were shared with teachers, were done by the Oakland Education Association without authorization by the District, and in fact, they were expressly disallowed by the District. In the cases of unauthorized flags that were put on school flagpoles, as soon as the District became aware, the schools were instructed to remove them immediately. In each case, the flags were taken down quickly.”