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The Mountain View Los Altos High School District has agreed to pay $32,500 to conclude a lawsuit with an organization that sued the district seeking documents about its ethnic studies program.
The Deborah Project, a nonprofit legal group that says it “defends the civil rights of people victimized by antisemitism and anti-Zionism,” filed the lawsuit against MVLA in June 2023, alleging that the district failed to release documents The Deborah Project had requested in a California Public Records Act request.
At the time, MVLA was in the process of implementing an ethnic studies program, which became a required, yearlong course for all freshmen starting in fall 2023. That was two years ahead of an expected state requirement for districts to offer a one-semester ethnic studies class.
After the lawsuit was filed, MVLA released some documents, but a dispute remained about whether the district’s records search had been expansive enough, according to court filings. In July 2024, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Helen E. Williams issued an order compelling MVLA to conduct a broader search and disclose any additional documents to The Deborah Project.
At a school board meeting this week, board President Esmeralda Ortiz announced that the board had voted unanimously in closed session to pay $32,500 for The Deborah Project’s attorneys fees in exchange for the group releasing MVLA from all claims associated with the suit.
The Deborah Project and MVLA both confirmed to the Voice that, once carried out, this agreement will conclude the lawsuit and that the school district has finished releasing the records outlined in the judge’s order.
While the deal will end the existing public records lawsuit against MVLA, it doesn’t preclude The Deborah Project from filing future litigation, including over the ethnic studies program itself, both parties confirmed.
However, The Deborah Project “has no immediate plans to pursue additional legal action” against the district, according to Johanna Markind, the attorney who represented The Deborah Project in this case.
In its lawsuit, The Deborah Project told the court that it was “seeking information about an overtly anti-Israel, antisemitic and anti-Zionist teaching program” in the district. At the time, the group’s legal director told the Voice that she didn’t have evidence MVLA was teaching material The Deborah Project would consider objectionable, but that this is what the group sought to determine through the records it sought.
Based on the documents MVLA has now released, Markind said that The Deborah Project “didn’t find evidence of antisemitism.” She added that this doesn’t rule out the possibility of problems with materials The Deborah Project hasn’t seen.
“In the event we should hear from individuals/families impacted by antisemitic behavior by or tolerated by MVLA, we of course would look into representing those students, teachers, or families,” Markind said.
The school district has said that its ethnic studies course is an important way to build community among students from diverse backgrounds and disputed the idea that its content is antisemitic.
Back when the lawsuit was filed in 2023, then-Superintendent Nellie Meyer said that the district did not “have any antisemitic content nor references to anything resembling antisemitism within any of our courses.”
“In fact, the purpose of our new ethnic studies course is to increase respect for the diverse populations we serve,” Meyer said.
It seems The Deborah Project is seeking to uphold the spirit of their namesake, ensuring nothing unjudicial passes under their watch, even if it means suing to verify the absence of what they’re vigilant against!
What a waste of public money. Why not just provide the material?