Pictures and videos have flooded social media exposing college students engaged in chants for a “Free Palestine.” In one viral clip, an anti-Israel demonstrator at New York University acknowledged that she was not sure what the protests were about, stating, “I wish I was more educated.”
America’s youth have been duped into a Faustian bargain not entirely of their own making.
K-12 students are being enticed into street activism. The movement is driven by a small, aggressive minority of adult radicals and nonprofit organizations that have gained access to children’s minds through curriculum and clubs. K-12 schools have become pipelines for activist organizations.
One such access point is through liberated ethnic studies.
On May 8, Berkeley (Calif.) Unified School District superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about the pervasiveness of antisemitism in K-12 schools. When questioned about the district’s $111,120 contract with the ethnic studies consultant group Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, she stated that they did not purchase a curriculum from the group but instead were “thought partners.”
Well, show me your “thought partners,” and I will show you your future.
LESMC has a sordid history of pushing antisemitic and anti-Western Civilization lessons, curriculum and training, including teacher development specifically for White teachers to understand their “privilege, power, and positionality” and how to address “White grief and fragility.”
Additionally, the co-founder of LESMC, Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona, claimed to be a “proud member of the socialist political organization” Union del Barrio, which describes its members as revolutionary nationalists. In fact, Cardona is the chair of its education wing, the Association of Raza Educators.
Union del Barrio has been actively engaged in the Free Palestine and decolonization movement alongside the nonprofit Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC).
In fact, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, a fiscal project of the Tides Center, was a principal driver behind the recent shutdown of a San Francisco Bay Area bridge.
Yet, AROC has infiltrated K-12 schools through its youth activist arm Arab Youth Organizing (AYO), through a memorandum of understanding with San Francisco Unified School District, as an “Arab Community Base Partner” with Oakland Unified School District, or found in Berkeley Unified School District’s “Arab American Heritage Month” teaching resources.
On October 18, 2023, AROC and AYO orchestrated walkouts at several high schools. Videos of the protest feature students marching through hallways, chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Unfortunately, gone are the days when student clubs were focused on academic enrichment, hobbies and community service. They have become effective vehicles for activism.
Such is the case with Amnesty International clubs. Operating under the guise of “humanitarian” or “human rights” efforts, these clubs use children to push their agenda.
For example, last November, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne made a public statementadvising that schools keep Amnesty International out of clubs and schools because it generates “antisemitism among impressionable young people.”
Additionally, a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by Parents Defending Education reveals that the Amnesty International club at Illinois Math and Science Academy was handing out fundraising pamphlets for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency that included messaging such as “Israel’s claims of self-defense are invalid because they are based on illegal actions.” UNRWA has been accused of aiding Hamas and is alleged to have had individuals involved in the attacks on October 7.
Many clubs cross over into solidarity with other causes.
The GSA Network states that Gender & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) clubs have “emerged as vehicles for deep social change related to racial, gender and educational justice.”
It should come as no surprise when it posted on social media that it “reaffirms that the liberation of Palestine is a trans, queer, and two-spirit issue” and that people are “deeply affected by the intersections of global capitalism, patriarchy and White supremacy.”
In a recently published document titled “Roots of Resistance,” the GSA Network promotes activities such as the “GSA Day for Racial Justice 2024,” which includes a “call for an end of the cisgender heterosexual patriarchy.” The document also links slides promoting a “call to action” for “Palestinian Liberation” and involvement with Party for Socialism and Liberation demonstrations.
GSA clubs can be found in schools nationwide.
As protests on university campuses showcase the influence that radical political actors have had on students, giving these same outside groups access to our youngest children through curriculum and clubs is a significant cause for concern.
This school-to-activism pipeline is real and needs to end. The manipulation of children for radical causes has no place in the American education system.
