Families move kids out of Oakland schools over concerns of ‘antisemitic environment'

In the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, Jewish families in the Bay Area are rethinking where they feel safe -- including where they send their kids to school. 

In Oakland, dozens of families are moving their kids out of the district over concerns that some schools in the Oakland Unified School District have become an antisemitic environment. 

Rebecca said she took out her 6-year-old son out of the district because of alternative lesson plans and pro-Palestinian statements from Oakland teachers union.

“It made me feel ousted, it made me feel like we were not a part of the community and it made me feel like my child could not be safe in a school district,” she said.

Her concerns started after the teachers union released,  and later revised, an online statement condemning the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, and claiming the Israeli government created an apartheid state.   

Those worries grew in December after an unsanctioned teach-in where several teachers created an alternative curriculum over concerns the district's teachings were biased against Palestinians.  

“I don’t think politics belong in the classroom at an elementary level and that’s the main source of my issue, is that the district’s teachers publicly took a political position,” said Rebecca.

She is one of at least 30 Jewish families that have requested transfers out of the district recently citing concerns of antisemitism and a lack of response from the school district.    

According to OUSD, around 950 students asked to be transferred out of the district in the first semester for a variety of reasons. However, 900 others transferred in.    

Parents said they want everyone to feel welcome. 

“I think it's important in education for everyone to feel welcomed and included and if there is anyone that doesn’t feel that way I do think that is a problem,” said Mariko Geronimo, an OUSD parent.

But for Muslim families like Nazanin Larkin, representation is important. 

“I feel like as a Muslim, we have had such little representation in the public school system,” she said, adding that she thinks all beliefs should be shared in the classroom.

“It needs to be discussed because it's happening outside of the classroom, kids are talking about it with each other, kids are talking about it at home with their parents and I think the school needs to be the last line of defense of providing accurate information,” said Larkin.

The teachers union did not respond to NBC Bay Area’s request for comment.  

The district issued a statement saying, in part, "we are regularly communicating to our community, reminding them of our core values of love and support, so it should be clear that everyone is welcome and valued in our schools."

For Rebecca, she said the move out of the district makes her feel like her son can be proud of his Jewish roots. 

“Clearly it’s an exodus of a single group, of a minority group, and I think OUSD should wake up and do more,” she said.  

In a longer statement Rebecca writes, "OUSD stood by while the teachers’ leadership endorsed and spread classroom materials that negate our indigenous ancestry and vilify our ethnicity, as well as glorify terrorism against the Jewish diaspora (I is for Intifada). Their lack of adequate action permitted their employee leadership to create a hostile work and learning environment for Jews. While we didn’t experience this in our child’s kindergarten class, the fact that it existed in the school district raised serious concerns for future harm as he moved through schools in the school district."

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the Oakland Education Association's statement on the Israeli Hamas War.  It's also been updated with an additional statement from the mother Rebecca who removed her child from the Oakland Unified School District.