CODEPINK activists throughout California are testifying before school boards and meeting with superintendents, presenting our Open Letter asking school districts NOT to contract or promote professional development with the California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education until its teacher training program (1) includes scholars on Palestine and US-Israel genocide in Gaza (2) expels the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations that conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism (3) develops a transparent and accountable governance structure.
To learn more, check out the Drop The ADL From Schools website and and read CA’s New Law-ADL Genociders to Train Teachers on Genocide.
We invite school boards, county offices of education, teachers unions, parent groups and all community stakeholders to join us in expelling the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as teacher trainers and curriculum developers from our schools. We value education, not indoctrination, and want our students to learn the truth about Israel’s occupations of Palestine and genocide in Gaza.
Take Action
- Sign the petition: Expel the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from our schools!
- Sign our Open Letter to School Stakeholders to demand Palestinian voices in teacher training.
- Follow/like and amplify the DropTheADLFromSchools campaign on IG, X & fb.
- Present the Open Letter and testify before your school district board of education and county office of education to alert them your concerns. If you can’t be there in person, write your school board members. (sample letter here.)
- Ask your school board members, teachers union and civic organizations to pass a resolution (sample here) to expel the ADL and demand education, not indoctrination, on Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine.
- Submit a Public Records Act request (sample here) to your school district to find out if they have contracted with the ADL for professional development or lesson plans.
- Contact school superintendents and/or district curriculum specialists to share your demands they expel the ADL (or not promote/contract with them) and include Palestinian scholars on genocide education.
- Amplify Drop The ADL From Schools on social media!
Background on the ADL
The ADL, a powerful Israel lobby group, indoctrinates our students into Zionism with lesson plans that downplay the Nakba. This is the Arabic word for the catastrophe in 1948, when Zionist militias destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages, burning some to the ground, massacring Palestinians, to ethnically cleanse Palestine for a Jewish colonial settler project, Zionists expelled over 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland, barring them and their descendants from ever returning while promising automatic citizenship to Jews who immigrate to Israel.
The Anti-Defamation League attempts to silence our voices at protests across college campuses, conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism, smearing peace activists and issuing veiled threats to file civil rights lawsuits against universities that refuse to launch baseless investigations into Palestinian rights organizations.
Now the State of California has put the ADL, a genocide denier, and like-minded groups in charge of training teachers on genocide education in California. This is wrong. Let’s make it right. Join us in our campaign to Expel the ADL.
Resources
Use these Presentation Slides to support local advocacy and campaigns against the ADL.
Watch past testimonies:
Video of Activists Testifying at the Santa Barbara County Board of Education, Santa Barbara County Office of Education, Marcy Winograd, Sophia Fadila, Sylvia Aghabekian Lowden, Marite Montero
Expel the Anti-Defamation League from Schools-SB County Office of Ed (11/14/24)
DropTheADLFromSchools Video/SB School Board Meeting (11/12/24)
DropTheADLFromSchools Video/Ojai School Board Meeting (11/13/24)
DropTheADLFromSchools Video/San Luis Obispo County Office of Education School Board Meeting (11/7/24)
Expel the ADL from our schools: San Luis Coastal Unified School District activists (12/5/24)
Send this Sample Letter to school board members
Sample Letter to Policy Makers - Drop The ADL From Schools
This is a sample letter that educators, students, caregivers, and activists can download and edit to send to decision-makers including state and local school administrators, school board members, principals, DEI offices, and others who you are aiming to influence to sever ties with the ADL. Use the letter to educate, but also ask for a meeting so that you can discuss the issues in person.
"Dear [principal/superintendent/school board members],
[I am/We are] deeply concerned about the problematic role the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is playing in schools across the United States with its biased Echoes & Reflections curriculum that smears peace activists. As you can see from this article in Rethinking Schools the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be, and [I am/we are] reaching out to urge you to cut all ties with the ADL and not promote or contract with the CA Teachers Collaborative on Holocaust and Genocide Education until it expels the ADL and others who conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism, and includes Palestinian scholars on US-Israel. See CA’s New Law: ADL Genocide Deniers to Train Teachers on Genocide and our Open Letter to School Districts.
[I/We] would like to meet with you to discuss [our school’s/school district’s] relationship with the ADL and explore ways to address bigotry and racism using tools developed by social justice educators and practitioners.
Please let [me/us] know of some times when you would be available to meet to discuss this further. [I/we] look forward to speaking with you.
Sincerely,"
Share this Sample Resolution with civic organizations, unions and school board members.
SAMPLE RESOLUTION-EXPEL THE ADL
TITLE: EXPEL THE ADL & DEMAND PALESTINIAN VOICES IN EDUCATION
WHEREAS, Governor Newsom signed SB 1277 to establish an ADL-driven California Teachers Collaborative on Holocaust and Genocide Education that includes lesson plans and professional development which conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism to smear peace activists for protesting US-Israel genocide in Gaza;
WHEREAS, the Anti-Defamation League, a powerful pro-Israel lobby organization, includes in the Collaborative lesson plans that equate Jewish identity with Israel to indoctrinate students into Zionism while downplaying or ignoring altogether Palestinian culture, history and liberatory movements;
WHEREAS, the Anti-Defamation League uses unreliable and manipulated data to stoke fear and divide school communities;
THEREFORE, we resolve to expel the ADL from our schools, cut ties with the ADL as a professional developer and reject its biased lesson plans in Echoes & Reflections …
THEREFORE, we resolve to seek alternative professional development to the ADL and the CA Teachers Collaborative on Holocaust and Genocide Education until the Collaboartive includes Palestinian scholars on US-Israel genocide and Palestinian culture and history.
Submit a Public Records Act request to learn if your school district has contracts with the Anti-Defamation League.
SAMPLE PUBLIC RECORDS ACT REQUEST
"Under the California Public Records Act, I hereby request copies, from 2019 to the present, of any and all contracts with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), as well as emails between the Superintendent and representatives of the ADL.
Thank you in advance for promptly addressing my request."