California school administrator urged state not to cave to ‘privileged white voices’

A California school district administrator has sparked outrage for saying she believes “privileged white voices” should not be involved in setting lessons.

Sarnia Shoman of the San Mateo Union High School District reportedly sent an email in 2021 to California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond arguing against proposed ethnic studies curriculum changes.

‘We urge the [state board of education] not give in to the pressures and influences of political lobbyists, racist and privileged white voices and individuals,’ he said in the email, according to Fox Digital News.

The changes featured included Jewish-American studies and curricula that would have brought ‘multiple perspectives’.

The proposed revisions privilege terms like “multiple perspectives,” “diversity,” “all students,” and “broad range of groups,” undermining the primary focus on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities that comprise more 80 percent of California’s student population,’ Shoman wrote in the email.

The email, sent when the State Board of Education passed the Ethnic Studies Curriculumwas obtained through a public record request by Zachor Legal.

The educator went on, allegedly calling for a more extreme ethnic studies curriculum, specifically related to the Black Lives Matter movement.

‘[E]even in the African American lesson on the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a direct response to white supremacy that does not denounce or analyze racism and systemic oppression,” he said in the email.

He also urged that no changes be made that would include American-Jewish studies.

according to one plugShoman is the co-coordinator of the Middle East Children Alliance’s Teach Palestine initiative.

Shoman, a pro-Palestinian advocate, said she strongly disagreed with the choice to include Jews in ethics studies in the Asian American and Pacific Islander categories.

“This is very inaccurate and has no institutional background,” he said.

Shoman is responsible for overseeing the district’s academic and English learner support programs. According to her bio on the district’s website, she is a California native with “Palestinian roots.”

“I have dedicated my career in public education to advancing racial and social justice in the classroom and in the broader educational organizations and space in which I work,” the educator’s bio reads.

The woman also works in ethnic, guidance and family engagement studies and has a BA in Political Science and an MA in Education from San Francisco State University.

“I see my role as a visionary and advocate for continuous improvement of programs that serve our most vulnerable, yet resilient student populations,” he says in the bio posted on the district’s website.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the district said the following:

‘dr. Shoman…was appointed to and served on the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Advisory Committee.

‘She and her fellow committee members wrote to the California State Board of Education in their roles as members of this Committee to express their views.

‘In their letter, the committee did not call for the removal of Israel, Jews, the 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.

“Furthermore, the group is not criticizing multiple perspectives, but rather urges the Board of Education to center BIPOC voices through this curriculum.”

DailyMail.com was unable to reach officials with the San Mateo Union High School District at the time of publication.

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Zachor Legal’s Marc Greendorfer called Shoman’s statements false.

“The position taken by Samia Shoman and others to treat Jews, the true indigenous people of the land of Israel, as ‘white’ occupiers and settlers is totally at odds with history and facts,” Greendorfer said.

He also took issue with the idea of ​​ethnic studies, in general.

“While we support the idea of ​​ensuring that students learn about the history of all ethnicities, we have found that these programs are anything but educational. Instead, they are political indoctrination by extremists who are working to institutionalize bigotry and hate in education,” Greendorfer said.

DailyMail.com was unable to reach Shoman for a response to Greendorfer’s statements or comments regarding the Fox News story.

In October 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law making California the first state to require high school students to complete a semester-long ethnic studies course.

The mandate doesn’t take effect until the 2025-2026 school year, but many schools across the state have been offering related courses for years.

A guideline for the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum sets out principles including promoting ‘the values ​​of civic engagement and civic responsibility’, ‘personal and collective empowerment’, and ‘critical thinking and rigorous analysis of historical , systems of oppression and the status quo in an effort to spark debates about the future and imagine new possibilities.’

according to 2022 WalletHub According to the research, California is the most diverse state in the US using metrics such as socioeconomic diversity, cultural diversity, economic diversity, household diversity, religious diversity, and political diversity.

Other states with great diversity include Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, and Arizona.

The least diverse states are Iowa, Ohio, Utah, Wyoming, Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and West Virginia.