What:  Speak in support of Anti-Islamophobia program at SDUSD schools.

When: Today, July 11, 2017 @ 4:45 PM

Why: 

• July 2016 SDUSD School Board voted unanimously to direct staff draft to plan addressing Islamophobia and bullying of Muslim students in the district. Stan Anjan is the executive director of SDUSD’s Family and Community Engagement who worked with the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to create a program to prevent bullying of Muslim students.  The program was in part a response to a study that showed 55% of Muslim students in California reported having been bullied-much higher than the national average.
• In April 2017 the Washington Times, Fox News, the Truth Revolt, the Free Republic, and Breitbart picked up the story and complained that the move by the district was (in a nut shell) anti-American and pro-terror.  Brietbart called CAIR a terrorist organization.
• May 2017 SDUSD the School Board approved the roll-out of proactive measures to address bullying of Muslim students to be fully implemented this coming fall. ( https://www.sandiegounified.org/addressing-bullying-muslim-students)
• Since then, Islamophobe parents have come to board meetings speaking publically to condemn the anti-bullying policy claiming that SDUSD students are being taught Islam and that means their religion should also be taught in school (All Board meetings are filmed and you can find their hateful statements on YouTube.)
• In late May 2017 a legal group and 6 parents sued the District claiming that the district policy is a violation of the separation of church and state, because the plan included teaching additional lessons about Islam to students. (FYI, schools are allowed, by the 1^st Amendment to teach about religion which is different from teaching religion.)
• The District has responded that the anti-bullying plan is intended to provide equal protection to Muslim students.

How:

Carpool and/or meet outside of the Tuesday, July 11, 2017 @4:50 p.m. sharp. (Eugene Brucker Education Center Auditorium, 4100 Normal Street, San Diego, CA 92103).. We’ll grab a public testimony form each of us before the meeting starts, fill out our forms, give them to the officer, enter the auditorium, and sit near the front left. At 5:00 p.m. Public Testimony (Up to 30 minutes total at beginning of meeting) begins. Speakers are requested to limit their remarks to no more than 3 minutes. Sometimes they limit it to 1 minute if there are a lot of people speaking. The lights flash when your time is up and you can finish your sentence and sit down. 

Here are few possible talking points if you can join us: 

My name is ______________ and I am a parent in the San Diego Unified School District.  I believe that in the current national political and social climate that it makes sense to help educate children about Islam to reduce stereotyping and prejudice. 

I support the current district efforts to reduce fear and misinformation about Islam and Muslim students.  I believe that my children and all children will benefit from learning more about Islam.

I want my children to make friends with children of all faiths.  I am concerned that there are parents who have spoken out with misinformation about the Muslim faith.  The Muslim faith is a peace-promoting faith that should not be defined by extremists just like any faith or group should not be defined by extremist factions.

I want to thank the School Board for approving of the policy to increase the knowledge-base of all of our children in the district to combat Islamophobia.  Given the current misinformation and fear shown by a small group of parents, it is clear that this program is much needed in our communities.

Thank you for promoting the anti-bullying of Muslim students.  Thank you for attempting to give equal protection to a group that is under attack in our country.  I want my children to have the opportunity to understand the beliefs and traditions of all faiths and the Muslim faith is particularly misunderstood and mischaracterized.  It is un-American to create a school-system that ignores the needs of special populations of students. I laud the Board’s foresight to proactively reduce prejudice through this program.

References

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/sd-me-islamaphobia-lawsuit-20170523-story.html

https://sandiegofreepress.org/2017/04/islamophobes-angry-at-san-diego-school-board-over-anti-bullying-policies/amp/

http://pamelageller.com/2017/04/action-alert-go-speak-tonight-islamization-san-diego-schools-betsydevos.html/