{"id":55489,"date":"2024-12-02T19:13:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T00:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/?p=55489"},"modified":"2024-12-02T19:13:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T00:13:08","slug":"lawsuit-against-liberated-ethnic-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/lawsuit-against-liberated-ethnic-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit Against Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium Dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube\" width=\"304\" height=\"186\" src=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/embed\/WcJgEncOq3U?wmode=transparent\" frameborder=\"0\" wmode=\"transparent\"><\/iframe> <p>LOS ANGELES, CA \u2014 December 2, 2024 \u2014 (<a title=\"NOTICIAS NEWSWIRE\" href=\"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NOTICIAS NEWSWIRE<\/a>) \u2014 On November 30, Federal Judge Fernando M. Olguin dismissed with prejudice a two-and-a-half-year-old lawsuit against educators alleging that the curriculum of the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC) was discriminatory and antisemitic. Judge Olguin took great pains to explain that not only was there no evidence of harm to the plaintiffs but that a curriculum that merely makes people feel uncomfortable is not discriminatory, nor does the inclusion of anti-Zionist material preclude students from exercising their religion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Calling the complaint \u201cdifficult to understand\u201d with \u201cirrelevant\u201d allegations and \u201ctroubling\u201d given that the plaintiffs amended their complaint three times, the judge dismissed their case and ordered that the plaintiffs will face financial penalties for the educators\u2019 legal fees after bringing a complaint to chill the educators\u2019 constitutional rights to free speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This overbroad lawsuit, brought without evidence, created an atmosphere of fear that had a statewide impact, a shadow ban, on the teaching of Ethnic Studies. Teachers were doxxed, reprimanded, placed on administrative leave, or fired for daring to envision a brighter future for students of color, uncovering the hidden histories of people of color. After years of material and psychological harm, Dr. Theresa Monta\u00f1o said, \u201cI feel exonerated, vindicated, and victorious. This is a victory not just for LESMCC but for every ethnic studies teacher who dares to teach the truth, including lessons about Palestine. This is an historic case for teachers everywhere who worried that when they entered a classroom, they lose the right to present an anticolonial and liberatory curriculum.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona felt a sense of relief not just for herself but for other educators facing similar backlash throughout the state. She said, \u201cIt\u2019s a huge relief because we\u2019ve been accused of untrue things. LESMCC is not antisemitic, nor has it ever been. We are for real ethnic studies, and ethnic studies is not hate. Ethnic studies is love.\u201d Ethnic studies is meant to balance an unbalanced high school curriculum by including the histories of students of color, who comprise 80% of California&#8217;s school-age population. This federal court decision reminds educators that students have the right to a robust and rigorous education, including information that might make them uncomfortable, and be in compliance with California\u2019s law AB 101, which is the high school ethnic studies graduation requirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A lawyer for the Defendants, Mark Kleiman, lauded the ruling, calling it \u201cA victory for students and parents hungry for knowledge about how oppression operates in the present day, and is not just something from history, and is a warning that we will resist efforts to muzzle us and will make want-to-be censors pay for what they have done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>LESMCC is unwavering in its advocacy for authentic research-based K-12 ethnic studies that increases high school graduation rates, GPAs, college matriculation, and improved cross-racial understanding. The dismissal of this lawsuit gives us hope for meeting our responsibility as California educators who condemn our collective failure to provide an excellent education to all of California\u2019s youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Virtual Press Conference, December 2, 2024, 7:00pm, register at qrco.de\/dismissed\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b>Key Quotes from Judge\u2019s Decision<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpeech is often provocative and challenging. Here it is clear that plaintiffs find the non-District defendants\u2019 speech and other conduct relating to the development and implementation of an ethnic studies curriculum to be \u2018provocative and challenging.\u2019 \u2018But our legal tradition recognizes the importance of speech and other expressive activity even when- perhaps especially when- it is uncomfortable or inconvenient.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOffensive content that does not penalize, interfere with, or otherwise burden religious exercise does not violate Free Exercise rights.\u2019 This is even so where such content contains materials that plaintiffs may find \u2018offensive to their religious beliefs\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear that the SAC [lawsuit] is a \u2018direct attack on curricula\u2019 &#8211; and \u2018absent evidence of unlawful intentional discrimination, parents are not entitled to bring Equal Protection claims challenging curriculum content\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c..it is far from clear that learning about Israel and Palestine or encountering teaching materials with which one disagrees constitutes an injury\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe individual plaintiffs\u2019 potential exposure to ideas with which they disagree is insufficient to support standing\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe individual plaintiffs have not alleged \u2018a sufficient likelihood of future injury\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsent an allegation of an underlying racist policy, plaintiffs cannot challenge the assignment of material deemed to have educational value by school authorities\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn short, plaintiffs\u2019 equal protection claims under both the California and United States constitutions must be dismissed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c..the manner in which the non-District defendants \u2018have inserted themselves\u2019 is what the anti-SLAPP statute is designed to protect &#8211; namely, \u2018conduct in furtherance of the exercise of the constitutional right of petition or the constitutional right of free speech in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe non-District defendants have shown that their speech, other conduct, and advocacy relating to LAUSD\u2019s potential ethnic studies curriculum implicate and compel public discussion of public issues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFar from challenging government conduct, plaintiffs\u2019 complaint seems to be with the fact that non-District defendants are advocating for curricular offerings with which plaintiffs disagree.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe court is persuaded that plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged a probability that they can preval on any of their claims, as their claims are either legally insufficient or barred as a matter of law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES, CA \u2014 December 2, 2024 \u2014 (NOTICIAS NEWSWIRE) \u2014 On November 30, Federal Judge Fernando M. Olguin dismissed with prejudice a two-and-a-half-year-old lawsuit against educators alleging that the curriculum of the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC) was discriminatory and antisemitic. Judge Olguin took great pains to explain that not only was&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/lawsuit-against-liberated-ethnic-studies\/\" class=\"learn-btn\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":55480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2360,2349],"tags":[22080],"class_list":{"0":"post-55489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asuntos-publicos-gobierno","8":"category-educacion","9":"tag-ethnicstudies-es","10":"entry"},"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/featured-image-12022-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/featured-image-12022-600x463.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"vicente","author_link":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/author\/vicente\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noticiasnewswire.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}