'Privileged white voices' should not influence curriculum, says district administrator

A California district administrator advised the state superintendent that "privileged white voices" should not be allowed to influence ethnic studies curriculum, according to a public records request recently obtained by Zachor Legal, Fox News Digital reported.

Samia Shoman, a district administrator who oversees the curriculum for San Mateo Union High School, sent an email to California state superintendent Tony Thurmond in March 2021, insisting that "white voices" be prevented from influencing the ethnic studies curriculum.

Shoman urged the board of education "not to give in to the pressures and influences of political lobbyists, racist & privileged white voices, and individuals."

The district administrator also argued that certain suggested modifications to the teachings "undermin[ed] the primary focus on the BIPOC."

"The proposed revisions privileges terms like 'multiple perspectives,' 'diversity,' 'all students' and 'broad range of groups' undermining the primary focus on the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) communities that compose over 80 percent of California's student population," Shoman wrote.

Shoman even accused the curriculum's Black Lives Matter lesson of missing the mark.

"[E]ven in the African American lesson on the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a direct response white supremacy fails to call out and analyze racism and systemic oppression," Shoman's email stated.

Shoman, who has been an outspoken advocate for Palestinians, proposed removing Jewish-American studies from the curriculum's Asian-American and Pacific Islander umbrella.

"This is grossly inaccurate, and has no institutional history," she argued.

In June 2022, Shoman spoke during a virtual "Dismantling White Supremacy Culture in Schools Conference," where she discussed her goal to get schools away from the "status quo" and traditional teaching methods.

Marc Greendorfer of Zachor Legal criticized Shoman's calls to remove Jewish-American studies and referred to the district's curriculum as "political indoctrination" proposed by "extremists."

"The position taken by Samia Shoman and others to treat Jews, the true indigenous people of the land of Israel, as 'white' occupiers and colonists is utterly at odds with history and facts," Greendorfer told Fox News Digital.

"While the idea of ensuring students are taught about the history of all ethnicities is one we support, we have found that these programs are anything but educational. Instead, they are political indoctrination by extremists who are working to institutionalize bigotry and hate in education," Greendorfer added.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, San Mateo Union High School said, "Dr. Shoman … was appointed and served on the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Advisory Committee. … She and her fellow committee members wrote to the California State Board of Education in their roles as members of this Committee to express their opinions."

"In their letter, the committee did not call for the erasure of Israel, Jews, Jewish perspective or Jewish history in the curriculum. They do suggest that these topics do not belong under the umbrella of Asian American and Pacific Islander History. Further, the group does not criticize multiple perspectives but rather urges the Board of Education to center BIPOC voices through this curriculum," the district added.

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