A school district administrator in California has sparked outrage because she believes “privileged white voices” shouldn’t be involved in setting up lessons.
Sarnia Shoman of the San Mateo Union High School District reportedly emailed California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond in 2021, arguing against proposed changes to the ethnic studies curriculum.
‘We demand them [state board of education] not yielding to the pressure and influences of political lobbyists, racist and privileged white voices and individuals,” she said in the email, according to Fox News Digital.
The proposed changes included Jewish-American studies and curricula that would have introduced “multiple perspectives.”
Sarnia Shoman of the San Mateo Union High School District reportedly emailed California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond in 2021, arguing against proposed changes to the ethnic studies curriculum
This is a school in the San Mateo Union High School District where Shoman works
“The proposed revisions privilege terms such as ‘multiple perspectives’, ‘diversity’, ‘all students’ and ‘broad range of groups’, which undermines the primary focus on the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities identified across California’s student population makes up 80 percent,” Shoman wrote in the email.
The email, which was sent out around the time the State Board of Education approved the Ethnic Studies curriculum, was obtained via a public record request from Zachor Legal.
The educator went on to allegedly call for a more extreme ethnic studies curriculum, particularly in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement.
‘[E]Even the African-American lesson on the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a direct response to white supremacy, fails to name and analyze racism and systemic oppression,” she said in the email.
She also pushed against changes that would include Jewish-American studies.
According to a outlet, Shoman is the co-coordinator of the Middle East Children Alliance’s Teach Palestine initiative.
Shoman, a pro-Palestinian advocate, said she wholeheartedly disagrees with the decision to include Jewish people in ethics studies under the Asian American and Pacific Islander categories.
“This is grossly inaccurate and has no institutional history,” she said.
!['We demand them [state board of education] not yielding to the pressure and influences of political lobbyists, racist and privileged white voices and individuals,” she said in the email](https://www.spamchronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/1674451352_930_The-California-school-administrator-urged-the-state-not-to-give.jpg "The California school administrator urged the state not to give in to \"privileged white votes.\" 5")
‘We demand them [state board of education] not yielding to the pressure and influences of political lobbyists, racist and privileged white voices and individuals,” she said in the email
Shoman is responsible for overseeing the district’s English learner and academic support programs. According to her biography on the district’s website, she is a native of California with “Palestinian roots.”
“I have dedicated my public education career to advancing racial and social justice in the classroom and in broader educational organizations and communities in which I work,” the educator’s biography reads.
The woman also works in ethnic, guided and family studies and has a BA in Political Science and an MA in Education from San Francisco State University.
“I see my role as creating vision and advocating for the continuous improvement of programs that serve our most vulnerable but resilient student populations,” she says in the biography posted on the district’s website.
The educator went on to allegedly call for a more extreme ethnic studies curriculum, particularly in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the district said:
‘DR. Shoman … was appointed to and served on the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Advisory Committee.
“She and her fellow committee members, in their roles as members of this committee, have written to the California State Board of Education to express their views.
“In its letter, the committee did not call for the deletion of Israel, Jews, Jewish perspective, or Jewish history from the curriculum. They suggest that these issues do not belong under the umbrella of Asian American and Pacific Islander history.
“Moreover, the group is not criticizing multiple perspectives, but urges the Board of Education to center BIPOC voices in this curriculum.”
Officials from the San Mateo Union High School District could not be reached by at the time of publication.
District officials said that Shoman was working with a group and that they were merely urging the Board of Education to focus on centering BIPOC votes
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Zachor Legal’s Marc Greendorfer called Shoman’s statements false.
“The position of Samia Shoman and others to treat Jews, the true indigenous people of the Land of Israel, as ‘white’ occupiers and colonists is completely contrary to history and fact,” Greendorfer said.
He also opposed the idea of ethnology in general.
“While we support the idea of ensuring that students are taught the history of all ethnicities, we have found these programs to be far from educational. Instead, they are political indoctrination by extremists working to institutionalize bigotry and hatred in education,” Greendorfer said.
was unable to reach Shoman for a response to Greendorfer’s statements or comments regarding the Fox News story.
A guideline for the Model Ethnic Studies curriculum sets out the principles, including promoting “the values of civic engagement and civic responsibility,” “self and collective empowerment,” and “critical thinking and rigorous analysis of history, of the systems of oppression and the status quo in an attempt to stimulate discussion about the future and envision new possibilities”
In October 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation making California the first state to require high school students to complete a semester of ethnic studies.
The mandate does not come into effect until the 2025-2026 school year, but many schools across the country have been offering courses for years.
A guideline for the Model Ethnic Studies curriculum sets out the principles, including promoting “the values of civic engagement and civic responsibility,” “self and collective empowerment,” and “critical thinking and rigorous analysis of history, of the systems of oppression and the status quo in an attempt to stimulate discussion about the future and envision new possibilities.’
In October 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation making California the first state to require high school students to complete a semester of ethnic studies
According to a 2022 study by WalletHub, California is the most diverse state in the US based on metrics such as socioeconomic diversity, cultural diversity, economic diversity, household diversity, religious diversity, and political diversity.
Other top states include Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and Arizona.
The states with the least diversity are Iowa, Ohio, Utah, Wyoming, Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and West Virginia.