New Haven Unified School District’s summer Social Justice Academy for elementary students includes anti-Israel presentation and lessons on privilege, the ‘School-to-Prison Pipeline,’ ‘book banning’ and transgenderism.
Incidents
Documents included in a Freedom of Information Act request provided to Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (ACES) by concerned parents reveal that New Haven Unified School District’s Social Justice Academy summer program includes an antisemitic slide presentation and lessons on Black Lives Matter, dehumanization, defunding the police, School-to-Prison Pipeline, privilege, oppression, and transgenderism.
The academy for rising 3rd-6th graders is a three-week program “grounded in the the [sic] call to action of the Alameda County Office of Education Racial Justice Resolution #2226 in which community members such as educators are asked to, ‘help our children understand and react to racial differences, and to teach our youth how to speak up against injustice, racism and inequality.'”
WEEK 1 LESSONS
As part of the summer programming, week one concepts include identity, race, liberation, oppression, power, privilege, “womxn rights,” bias, and prejudice.
Day one lesson plans include an introduction to a Social Justice Board and focus on identity, race, and ethnicity. One of the books used is the picture book Not my Idea— A Book About Whiteness. This book states that “whiteness is a bad deal. It always was.”
Day two lesson plans focus on liberation and oppression including the “4 I’s of Oppression;” while day three focuses on power, privilege, and “Womxn Rights.” Lesson activities include students listening to the audiobook “Race Cars” and watching a video titled “Check your Privilege.”
Day four lesson plans center concepts such as bias, stereotypes, and “Model Minority Myth.” Lesson activities include having elementary students pick a person to fire, to then reveal identity and characteristics of the candidates in question.
Another lesson activity titled “Challenging Stereotypes” has students role-play stereotype statements.
WEEK 2 LESSONS
Week two lessons focus on concepts such as “Marginalization/Dehumanization and Anti-Semitism,” “Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine,” social justice, activism, Black Lives Matter, police brutality, defund the police, and school to prison pipeline.
The day five lesson plan features students participating in a “First Impressions Students Walk” where they evaluate images posted around the room and answer questions relating to each picture. Images included in the activity feature contrasting pictures of 2020 protests and another with a side-by-side comparison of Adolf Hitler to President Donald Trump.
The day five lesson also includes a linked Padlet page titled “Dehumanization in History” which includes a “Palestine-Israel” presentation and other links including “Why Black people should care about Palestinian Liberation.”
The slide presentation titled “Palestine – Israel” includes slides such as “Language Matters: Who is controlling the messaging?” and “Disappearing Palestine.”
The day six lesson plan focuses on social justice and activism and includes a discussion about “Banning Books: What are the consequences of Florida Bill HP1467?”
Day seven plans focus on Black Lives Matter, police brutality, and defunding the police.
Lesson plans for day eight focus on the “School-to-Prison Pipeline” and “Criminalization of BIPOC.” A graphic provided in the attached slide show connects school discipline and testing equates to feeding a “School-to-Prison Pipeline.”
WEEK 3 LESSONS
Week three lessons feature concepts such as gender equality, Florida’s House Bill 1557 (often falsely referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill), and transgender rights.
The lesson for day nine features reading aloud both Julian is a Mermaid and I am Jazz, as well as working through a presentation that includes the Gender Unicorn, terminology, and a slide on “Family Rejection.”
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