Two Jewish parents, three former Jewish students, a Hindu parent and a Zoroastrian parent have sued Palo Alto Unified School District and Palo Alto High School principal Brent Kline after the students were encouraged to wear hijab and were given Qurans during what was supposed to be a field trip to a mosque. The incident took place last fall when the California school's Social Justice Pathway program conducted a field trip. The lawsuit said that the female students were encouraged to wear hijabs and the photos of the students were taken and posted online without taking the consent from the parents.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
The parents said the students were "exposed" to Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Bay Area's office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The parents called Billoo controversial and alleged that she was given free access to students to advocate "personal religious and political views".
School knew and did nothing, says lawsuit, School counters
The parents claimed that the school officials "knew or should have known of the recurring nature of the challenged field trips, the foreseeable risk that students would be exposed to religious activity and ideological messaging during those events, and the risk that student images would be captured and publicly disseminated in a religious context.”
School superintendent Jason Glass issued a statement after the lawsuit and said they were yet to see the documents. “What I can say is what our board policy requires. Instruction about religion in our schools must be academic, not devotional. No faith may be promoted, and no faith may be denigrated,” Glass said. “Every family in this district is entitled to expect that standard, and I will review our practice against it.”
Billoo reacted to the lawsuit and called it'misguided'. “Public schools and the government have an obligation to remain neutral toward religion, but what neutrality does not mean is shielding students entirely,” Billoo said to San Francisco Chronicle. “The job of educators is to teach students, and expose them to different worldviews. That’s what happened here.”
“One of the most important ways we combat hate is to learn about each other,” Billoo said, adding that the participation of the students was voluntary. “I am concerned that this group of parents not only wants to counteract that for their own children… but is attempting to intimidate schools and school districts from doing necessary work of educating the next generation.”
