A group of parents at La Jolla High School is criticizing a college preparation course at the school over what the parents perceive as ideological imbalance and “political indoctrination.” School leaders say the San Diego Mesa College professor who teaches the course is within her rights.
The course, “Introduction to Political Science,” analyzes civic and global affairs, among other topics, and is part of an “ongoing commitment to provide college- and career-ready opportunities to our students in preparation for their future,” according to James Canning, spokesman for the San Diego Unified School District.
However, parents Wyatt Collin, Karen Hobbs and David Herrera sent an email to the La Jolla Light detailing their discontent with the course, saying they were writing on behalf of 20 families, most of whom requested anonymity.
They said they also complained to La Jolla High and Mesa College, to no avail.
La Jolla High Principal Chuck Podhorsky declined to comment to the Light and referred questions to Canning.
Mesa College said in a statement to the Light that “we have concluded the content of the course is protected by academic freedom and does not violate the law or SDCCD [San Diego Community College District] policies. Our findings are framed by legal standards and precedent and do not diminish the personal experiences of any member of our community.”
The parents’ concerns center on parts of the course related to the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian organization that governs the Gaza Strip. Specifically, they pointed to class readings “A Deadly Apathy” by David Shulman and “Infinite License: The World After Gaza” by Omer Bartov, as well as a video-recorded discussion titled “Teach-In on Israel/Palestine,” as evidence of ideological bias and replacing analysis with activism.
They claim the course, taught by professor Yvonne Gastelum, is “defined by ideological messaging, racial essentialism and an astonishing lack of intellectual balance,” with assignments that lack context, counterpoint or critical examination.
“Infinite License,” an essay written for The New York Review of Books, states that “the memory of the Holocaust has, pervasively, been enlisted to justify both the eradication of Gaza and the extraordinary silence with which that violence has been met.”
Later in the essay, Bartov — a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University and the author of “Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis” — characterizes Israel’s actions in the war as repeating historical patterns of genocide.
“Teaching political science without offering multiple perspectives is malpractice,” according to the parents’ email. “Teaching it with a singular narrative that casts one group as heroes and another as monsters isn’t higher education — it’s dogma.”
The parents also contended the class “veered into lectures on the ‘levels of Whiteness’ among Jewish populations, dividing students into racial categories based on ancestry, tone or cultural heritage. These are not ‘teachable moments.’ They’re racially charged distractions with no academic merit and no place in a high school classroom.”
Sharon Amsalem, a parent at La Jolla High, said her son is enrolled in the course and was assigned to read “Infinite License” but felt uncomfortable with the subject matter. After getting up and leaving class, he was offered an alternate assignment, Amsalem said.
“I was really mad,” she said. “I right away called the school and talked to one of the advisers there. She told me they could not do anything … because it’s from Mesa College and it’s not part of La Jolla High School.”
“It’s really, really giving one side of the situation,” she added. “And yes, Israel is doing bad things; they’re [all] doing bad things. … I’m not saying who’s wrong and who’s right. But if you give the situation, give the whole picture.”
Amsalem said her son never felt “targeted” by the professor and that he remains in the class.
Jose Oldak’s child is not enrolled in the course, but he has ed other La Jolla High families in opposition to it. He learned of other parents’ concerns after ing an online group formed by Jewish families at La Jolla High in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.
Oldak said he moved his son to La Jolla High in hopes of avoiding classwork that he believed was intended to “get the students to take sides.”
“For me, it’s really important that this kind of thing does not become a constant in every single California school,” Oldak said. “There seems to be a group of ideologically minded people that instead of teaching children, they just want to indoctrinate them.
“If it was presenting two sides of the same issue, OK, fine. There is a broader exposure to ideas. There is an exploration. But in this case, this is not what’s happening.”
Oldak said he ed La Jolla High and Mesa College and received “dismissive” responses from both.
Canning told the Light that students in the class, along with their families, were aware of the course they signed up for.
“We ed along the concerns we received from families to the college and we encouraged the families/students to directly speak with the professor of the class,” Canning said.
The parents blasted that suggestion, saying “Mesa and La Jolla High washed their hands of the matter and left the burden on teenagers to challenge a college professor who grades them.”
Gastelum could not be reached for comment for this story.
The American Federation of Teachers’ collective bargaining agreement with the San Diego Community College District states in Section 12.1.6 that “academic freedom and freedom of expression afford the faculty the right to speak freely, pursue research and write without unreasonable restrictions or prejudices.”
Mesa College stated that it and other higher-education institutions are “vital spaces for academic inquiry and exploration of events occurring throughout the world.”
“Those events, such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, are often deeply personal and bring a variety of perspectives which may be conflicting,” according to the college’s statement. “We continue to work to expand our cultural humility and awareness to better create environments where all of our community may engage in academic discussions on complex and sometimes divisive topics with mutual respect and a sense of belonging.”
This isn’t the first time that controversy over the Gaza conflict has reached La Jolla. UC San Diego was the site of one of the largest demonstrations in campus history on March 6, 2024, when about 2,500 pro-Palestinian protesters marched across campus demanding an end to the war and pushing the university to drop its relationships with businesses perceived as hostile toward Palestinians.
The unrest came to a head two months later when police raided a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus after UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla declared that the encampment “violated campus policy and the law and grew to pose an unacceptable risk to the safety of the campus community.”
Some 65 students were arrested, most on suspicion of unlawful assembly. ♦
