A group of parents at De la Jolla High School criticizes a course for preparing the university at the school about what parents regard as ideological imbalance and ‘political indoctrination’. School leaders say that the San Diego Mesa College Professor who teaches the course falls within its rights.
The course, “Introduction to political sciences”, analyzes, among other things, topics Civic and global matters, and is part of a “continuous dedication to offer our students and career-ready opportunities in preparation for their future,” said James Canning, spokesperson for the San Diego Unified School District.
Parents Wyatt Collin, Karen Hobbs and David Herrera, however, sent an e -mail to the Sat Jolla Light Their dissatisfaction with the course describe and say that they wrote on behalf of 20 families, most of whom asked for anonymity.
They said they also complained at La Jolla High and Mesa College, in vain.
La Jolla High director Chuck Podhorsky refused to comment on the Light And referred to Canning.
Mesa College said in a statement to the Light that “We have concluded that the content of the course is protected by academic freedom and does not violate the Law of SDCCD [San Diego Community College District] policy. Our findings are framed by legal standards and precedent and do not reduce the personal experiences of a member of our community. “
The concern of the parents focuses on parts of the course related to the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian organization that rules the Gaza Strip. In particular, they pointed to class lectures “A deadly apathy” by David Shulman and “Infinite License: The World After Gaza” by Omer Bartov, as well as a video-recorded panel discussion entitled “Learn in Israel/Palestine,” As proof of ideological bias and replacement of analysis with activism.
They claim that the course, given by Professor Yvonne Gastelum, is “defined by ideological messages, racial essentialism and an amazing lack of intellectual balance”, with assignments that do not miss context, counterpoint or critical research.
“Infinite license”, written for an essay for The New York Review of Booksstates that “the memory of the Holocaust, omnipresent has been recruited to justify both the extermination of Gaza and the extraordinary silence with which that violence has been met.”
Later in the Essay, Bartov-a professor in Holocaust and Genocide studies at Brown University and the author of “Genocide, The Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Personal History in Times of Crisis” characteristic of Israel’s actions in the War Historical Pattern.
“Teaching political sciences without offering multiple perspectives is malpractice,” said the parents’ e -mail. “Teach it with a single story that one group throws heroes and the other as samples is not higher education – it’s dogma.”
The parents also claimed the class “in lectures on the ‘levels of whitiness’ to venture among Jewish population groups, so students are earned in racial categories based on origin, tone or cultural heritage. These are not ‘educational moments’. They are racially charged distractions without academic merit and not a place in a classroom at the middle school.”
Sharon Amsalem, a parent at La Jolla High, said her son was registered for the course and was assigned to read “infinite license”, but felt uncomfortable with the subject. After he was finished and left the class, he was offered an alternative assignment, Amsalem said.
“I was really angry,” she said. “I immediately called the school and spoke with one of the advisers there. She told me that they could not do anything … because it is from Mesa College and it is not part of La Jolla High School.”
“It really gives, really a side of the situation,” she added. “And yes, Israel does bad things; they are [all] do bad things. … I am not saying who is missing and who is right. But if you give the situation, give the whole picture. “
Amsalem said that her son never felt ‘targeted’ by the professor and that he stays in class.
Jose Oldak’s child is not registered in the course, but he has joined other La Jolla High families in contrast to contrast. He heard of the concerns of other parents after he was formed at an online group by Jewish families in La Jolla High in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Oldak said he moved his son to La Jolla High in the Hope to avoid classroom that he believed was meant to “let the students choose.”
“For me it is really important that things like this will not become a constant in every school in California,” said Oldak. “There seems to be a group of ideologically minded people who instead of teaching children, they just want to indoctrinate.
“If it presented two sides of the same problem, OK, fine. There is a wider exposure to ideas. There is an exploration. But in this case this is not what happens.”
Oldak said he had contacted La Jolla High and Mesa College and received “rejection” answers from both.
Canning told the Light That students in the class, together with their families, were aware of the course for which they register.
“We have passed on the worries we received from families to the college and we have encouraged the families/students to talk directly to the professor of the class,” said Carning.
The parents shot that suggestion and said, “Mesa and La Jolla washed their hands of the business and left the burden of teenagers to challenge a university professor who assesses them.”
Gastelum could not be achieved for comment for this story.
The American Federation of Teachers’ Collective Argking Agreement With the San Diego Community College District States in section 12.1.6 that “academic freedom and freedom of expression offer the faculty the right to speak freely, to do research and write without unreasonable limitations or prejudices.”
Mesa College stated that IT and other institutions with a higher education are ‘vital spaces for academic research and exploration of events that take place all over the world’.
“Those events, such as the conflict of Israel-Palestine, are often deeply personal and bring a variety of perspectives that can be contradictory,” said the college’s statement. “We continue to work to expand our cultural humility and consciousness to better create environments where all members of our community can make academic discussions about complex and sometimes division with mutual respect and a sense of connectedness.”
This is not the first time that controversy has reached La Jolla about the Gaza conflict. UC San Diego was the site of One of the biggest demonstrations in campist history On March 6, 2024, when around 2500 Pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched on campus and demanded an end to the war and the university to push its relationships with companies as hostile to Palestinians.
The unrest came to a head two months later When the police invaded a Pro-Palestinian campus on campus after UCSD-KanSelier Pradepep Khosla stated that the camp was “the campus policy and the law was violating and grew to pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of the campus community.”
About 65 students were arrested, most of them on suspicion of illegal meeting. ♦
Originally published:
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