The Alameda County Superior Court ruled on Friday that the Oakland Unified School District, which educates about 34,000 students in 82 schools, has not complied fully with the California Department of Education’s directives to address Jew-hatred on its campuses.
The department sued the district in March after Marleen Sacks, an Oakland education attorney, filed appeals alleging that the district’s corrective actions to address bias against Jewish and Israeli students were inadequate. The department determined that the appeals had merit and told the district to implement a series of corrective measures.
It filed the suit after determining that the district hadn’t complied in full with the directives by each of the deadlines in the appeals.
Jenna Whitman, the judge, ruled that the district has not yet complied with the department’s directives to provide trainings to the district on Jew-hatred and other forms of discrimination. This includes a requirement for an outside trainer, with consultation from a Jewish or Israeli education or advocacy organization, to conduct antisemitism training for all district employees. (JNS sought comment from the district.)
The district also has not complied with the department’s directive to provide training to all high school administrators and social studies teachers about instruction related to the Middle East not having a discriminatory bias, particularly antisemitic bias, according to Whitman.
The district has complied with other department directives, such as schools holding at least one assembly covering the Holocaust and addressing the harm that Nazi swastikas and other antisemitic imagery causes, Whitman stated.
The Oakland Unified School District and the California Department of Education “are encouraged to meet and confer to develop a chart or table that identifies the required corrective actions and the actions that OUSD has taken to comply for each, which the parties can utilize to track OUSD’s progress towards compliance,” she wrote. “The parties can keep each other informed about OUSD’s efforts so that the process can move forward effectively and efficiently.”
Scott Roark, public information officer for the department, told JNS that it “cannot comment on pending litigation.”
Sacks told JNS that the ruling “sets a precedent for establishing the authority of the California Department of Education to enforce its own orders in the face of recalcitrant school districts who are unwilling to acknowledge or address discrimination against Jews and Israelis.”
“Hopefully the district will complete the required trainings and other obligations mandated by the California Department of Education and ensure that all staff actually complete those trainings,” she said. “We have evidence that there are multiple staff who are refusing to take or complete the trainings.”
The lawyer told JNS that “we hope that the district will immediately remove all pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel posters, flags, murals and other visual displays and ensure that the other forms of indoctrination of students cease.”
Sacks and the Oakland Jewish Alliance filed a separate suit against the district in March 2025 alleging that it didn’t properly investigate Jew-hatred complaints and failed to comply with state public-records requirements. That suit is ongoing.
“We will continue to litigate that case because the remedies imposed by the California Department of Education are really the bare minimum,” Sacks told JNS.
