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Censorship Rocks Los Angeles School District–“Teachers Told to Remove Palestine & BLM Flags”

Ron Gochez, Union del Barrio, addresses rally in support of Ethnic Studies teachers at LAUSD’s Downtown Business Magnet (5/14/26). Photo credit: Colin Hernandez.

Censorship Rocks Los Angeles School District–“Teachers Told to Remove Palestine & BLM Flags”

The second largest school district in the country has brought down the hammer on social justice educators following last year’s passage of AB 715, an “antisemitism” bill sponsored by the California Israel lobby and rubber-stamped by its minions in the state legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) with over 500,000 students has ordered Ethnic Studies and social studies teachers at the Downtown Business Magnet (DBM) to remove Palestinian and Black Lives Matter flags, and undergo teacher training on the use of “neutral terms” to describe sensitive topics, including Israel’s slaughter and starvation of Gaza.

The order from the District’s Office of Student Civil Rights (OSCR) came after Emet Legal Services, contacted by another teacher at DBM, filed a complaint of antisemitism last February objecting to social studies and health teacher Tiffany Do’s display of a Palestinian flag and anti-genocide poster, as well as the wearing of a keffiyeh in class. In its 19-page “Report of Findings,” which Do said was not shared with DBM teachers, the District said the keffiyeh could stay but advocacy posters had to go.

Community rallies in solidarity with Do

At a lively after-school protest (5/16/26) in front of the Downtown Business Magnet, teacher and Union del Barrio organizer Ron Gochez said the District’s edict that teachers remain silent in the face of a US-subsidized genocide was like telling teachers in Nazi Germany to take a neutral stance on the Holocaust.

School psychologist Clemen Avalos also spoke at the rally sponsored by LA Educators for Justice in Palestine, Association of Raza Educators, Union del Barrio, Community Self-Defense Coalition and others. Avalos said, “Palestinian students, Mexican students, students born north or south of the border, Black students, Indigenous students–all of our students deserve the right to learn about the truth about their history, their identity and their culture.”

Ethnic Studies under attack

Avalos’ comments speak to AB 715’s threat to Ethnic Studies as an interdisciplinary study of decolonization that centers stories and struggles of marginalized voices and people of color. The California Department of Education’s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) underscores solidarity with the oppressed as a foundational value of Ethnic Studies, a course originally required for high school graduation under 2021 legislation, but now stalled due to zero funding in the state budget. From the start, the Israel lobby–JPAC/Jewish California and the California Legislative Jewish Caucus (LJC) –has objected to the mere mention of Palestine in Ethnic Studies, introducing one bill after another........

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