Months before a San Jose high school attracted national attention when an image of students forming a human swastika on a football field went viral, a Jewish student in the Santa Cruz Mountains was targeted in a way that left no ambiguity, according to state records: A classmate allegedly taped a Nazi flag to the student’s back without his knowledge, snapped a photo and made a hand puppet that resembled Adolf Hitler.
San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District investigated the incident and closed the case. But state officials later stepped in, telling the district it had not done enough to remedy the issue.
That pattern — local districts rejecting or minimizing antisemitism complaints, followed by state reversals and orders to change course — appears again and again across the Bay Area in California Department of Education documents obtained by Bay Area News Group. In 14 antisemitism-related complaint cases filed with the state since December 2023, officials found that districts from Santa Clara County to Marin County did not consistently follow required complaint procedures, failed to properly investigate allegations or did not take corrective action when warranted.
In at least 12 of the cases reviewed, the department reversed district determinations that the reported incidents did not amount to discrimination. In each of those cases, the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, a Jewish and Israeli-American advocacy group, appealed the districts’ decisions to the state.
Two of the 14 cases followed a different procedural path. In San Lorenzo Valley Unified, the district concluded that antisemitism had occurred and disciplined the students involved, but the state later found the district failed to adequately address potential discrimination by other students or properly remedy the harm. In Campbell Union High School District, the state conducted its own investigation rather than reviewing a district decision on appeal and found that course materials in an ethnic studies class discriminated against Jewish students.
Taken together, the cases span a wide swath of the region — including San Lorenzo Valley, Santa Clara, Campbell Union High, San Ramon Valley, Oakland and San Francisco, among others — and describe incidents ranging from student-on-student harassment to teacher comments to classroom instruction about the Israel-Hamas war that state investigators found to be unbalanced or discriminatory.
The story of the human swastika at Branham High drew attention because it is an easily recognizable form of antisemitism, said Tali Klima, the spokesperson for the coalition. But other incidents reflect a new, subtler antisemitism students face — including disputes over curriculum and teacher advocacy that some Jewish students and families say leaves them feeling singled out or unsafe.
In response to the Branham incident, the education foundation connected to Campbell Union High School District contributed $13,000 toward addressing antisemitism on campuses. School officials did not specify how or where that money would be spent.
What state investigators said districts got wrong
The California Department of Education records repeatedly point to the same issue: how districts handled discrimination complaints — and whether they met state requirements that instruction be free from bias and that districts respond appropriately when students are subjected to discrimination based on protected characteristics.
In multiple cases involving Santa Clara Unified, Campbell Union High, New Haven Unified and Oakland Unified, the state found that teacher instruction or classroom materials presented the Israel-Hamas war in a way the department deemed biased — often portraying the war almost entirely from a Palestinian perspective while placing Israel and people affiliated with Israel in a negative light, according to the findings.
In Santa Clara Unified, for example, a teacher-created example for a human-rights project included an image with the statements “Go home, Israel” and “Being Anti-Zionist is cool,” according to the complaint and state findings. In Oakland Unified, materials celebrating Arab American Heritage Month did not include Israel on a map of the current Middle East, instead labeling the entire territory as Palestine, according to state records.
Santa Clara Unified did not respond to a request for comment. Oakland Unified previously said the district hired several third-party investigators to review more than 20 antisemitism complaints and described the incorrect map as “an oversight on the part of the district team.” The district said it began additional trainings in December on preventing antisemitism and hatred in response to the findings by the department and is implementing corrective actions identified by the district and the state, a spokesperson for the district said.
“There are ways to examine past and current events and ideas relating to students’ identities that foster balance, truth, growth, tolerance and sensitivity,” the education department wrote in the New Haven Unified case, “which do not include politically-charged phrases which can sow division and contempt.”
In these and other cases, districts concluded the incidents did not amount to antisemitism or discrimination — rulings the state disagreed with, saying educators had not complied with state requirements and had violated anti-discrimination law.
New Haven Unified Superintendent John Thompson said in a statement Friday that “teaching students about complex international conflicts is inherently challenging” and that the district has a responsibility to ensure instruction is non-discriminatory.
“This work is already underway and will continue,” he said.
When teachers became the complaint
Several cases described teachers discussing their own political views on the latest Israel-Hamas war in ways that state investigators said foreseeably made Jewish students feel uncomfortable, harassed or targeted.
In San Ramon Valley Unified, a teacher publicly singled out a student to ask about Jewish and Israeli customs, compared the Holocaust with the Israel-Hamas war, and allegedly said “descendants of (Holocaust) survivors are perpetuating crimes worse than Nazis,” according to state documents.
In a similar case from San Francisco Unified, the state said that whether intended or not, “it was entirely foreseeable that students of Jewish identity or Israeli origin or affiliation would experience distress as a consequence of the teacher’s one-sided political advocacy.”
The state ordered the district to provide outside training for all administrators and history teachers to ensure instruction is not discriminatory or antisemitic. San Ramon Valley Unified said the district hired a third-party firm to investigate the case and respects that the education department, which did not investigate the matter directly, “has a role in ruling on appeal requests.” The district said it does not tolerate antisemitism and that additional professional development is underway.
In Santa Clara Unified, a teacher publicly pressured a Jewish student to cancel a Jewish Culture Club event, according to a complaint. The teacher said the event — which featured an Israeli speaker — would “cause a rise in antisemitism” and be a “bad look,” citing the speaker’s social media posts as racist and discriminatory toward Arabs.
And in Tamalpais Union High School District, a Spanish teacher allegedly questioned why school was out on a Jewish holiday and then answered: “because there are too many Jews.”
“A district teacher, during class time instruction, seems to have said something shockingly antisemitic to her students, which likely would, and apparently did, induce discomfort and offense,” the education department said in its findings.
San Lorenzo Valley Unified Superintendent Chris Schiermeyer said the district provided staff training after the hand puppet and flag incident and plans to hold 10 student assemblies on Jewish identity and history with the Anne Frank Center USA.
‘One-off’ incidents — or something bigger?
Across all 14 cases, the state directed districts to revise complaint processes or provide staff training aimed at addressing antisemitism and teaching controversial topics in a balanced way.
But Maya Bronicki, the education director for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, said ordering training is not enough — in part because the state has not required a clear standard for what such training must include.
“When there is no clear standard, there are no clear solutions,” Bronicki said. “And that’s where the state is failing (teachers) and the students.”
Bronicki and Klima, the coalition spokesperson, said by handling cases individually and privately with school districts — where many cases are resolved through administrative findings and corrective-action plans, and student privacy rules can limit what districts disclose publicly — the state is failing to address what they describe as a systemic issue of antisemitism in California schools.
“It’s being treated as one-off incidents,” Klima said. “It’s clear, in its totality, there’s a systemic problem.”
A new law — and a test of whether the state will do more
The reversals come as Assembly Bill 715 takes effect this year, a high-profile and contentious law that creates a new Office of Civil Rights and establishes what supporters describe as a first-in-the-nation statewide antisemitism prevention coordinator. The coordinator — appointed by Newsom and confirmed by the state Senate — will track and report incidents of antisemitism in schools and advise districts on prevention and response strategies.
The law comes amid a broader rise in hate incidents, state leaders and advocates say.
According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Hate Crime in California 2024 report, anti-Jewish hate crimes rose from 289 in 2023 to 310 in 2024 — a 7.3% increase — and increased more than 219% from 2015 to 2024.
State Sen. Josh Becker, who represents parts of San Mateo County and northern Santa Clara County, said the goal is to ensure schools have consistent support and clearer expectations when antisemitism complaints arise.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a cure-all,” Becker said. “Antisemitism is one of the oldest forms of hatred, so I don’t think it’s going to magically go away, but we’re hoping that this gives clear, consistent, statewide support to address the hate incidents.”
‘He feels like he has to hide his identity’
For some parents, the state’s new office and coordinator may arrive too late — and still fall short.
Emma Brill, a parent in the Fremont Union High School District, said the rise in antisemitism has weighed on her three children. Her youngest son, now a junior, has been subjected to antisemitism at school and has been made to feel like he must hide his identity on campus, she said.
Fremont Union High School District said it takes all reports of alleged antisemitism seriously, investigates them thoroughly, and enforces policies addressing discrimination and bullying — including through consequences for students who violate those policies.
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on an enormous cut,” she said.