On November 6th 2025, the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) board denied Kauser Adenwala, former history teacher at Wilcox High School, an appeal to a sustained complaint she had previously received. The complaint was over a video shown during a World History lesson about the Holocaust in March 2024 which displayed a Holocaust survivor, Marione Ingram, denouncing Israel’s military actions within the Gaza strip.
The video was published by TRTWorld, a Turkish broadcaster commonly criticized for being biased. In the video, Ingram speaks about her conflicted feelings regarding the Gaza conflict: “I’m actually ashamed sometimes to acknowledge that I belong to the tribe that is killing innocent people,” Ingram claims. Furthermore, Ingram equates the current crisis in Gaza to her own experiences in the Holocaust.
The Bay Area Jewish Coalition (BAJC), an advocacy group formed after October 7th, announced they had filed a complaint to SCUSD on May 31st, 2024. In July, the board announced that they determined that Ms. Adenwala had violated Board Policy 6144 – Controversial Issues, which advises teachers to “exercise caution and discretion” when picking lesson topics.
During early April of 2025, StandWithUS alongside the BAJC filed a Title IV complaint to the U.S. Department of Education against the district for “failing to protect its Jewish and Israeli students” and “[failing] to conduct proper or timely investigations.” Their case stated the board had allowed Ms. Adenwala to “further her own personal activist goals” and accused her of anti-semitism.
On August 28th, the district’s board meeting saw community members making public comments regarding the board’s decision and Ms. Adenwala’s future appeal, both in support of Ms. Adenwala and against her. On November 6th, the district held a hearing for Ms. Adenwala’s appeal in which an incredibly high turnout of 121 speakers attended to comment during the eight hours of the meeting. Two thirds of the total speakers came out in support of her, and 31 out of the 32 students who attended showed their support for her. United Teachers of Santa Clara (UTSC), the union for the teachers across the district, were also supporting Ms. Adenwala with both the president and vice-president speaking at the hearing. On the opposition, a majority of her opposition were adults within the Santa Clara community, both with and without children in the district. Other notable speakers included readers of a letter addressed to the board authored by ten scholars of Jewish history expressing their support for Ms. Adenwala and the appeal.
A number of attendees also felt that she appropriately used the video despite the discomfort that it evoked and some also raised concerns about her being potentially targeted as the only visibly Muslim teacher at Wilcox. Furthermore, supporters also shared that it would be unfair to view her actions as anti-semitic as that would equate Israeli nationality to the broader Jewish identity. Critics of Ms. Adenwala expressed that the video was inappropriate considering the sensitivity of the Holocaust, they also felt that she did not offer a significant enough counter-opinion to be unbiased leading to Jewish students feeling targeted.
Despite the vocal support of both of those within the district, the appeal was denied. In an interview with J. Weekly, board member Jodi Muirhead explained that it was not the video itself that was the reason for the decision, rather it was the context in which it was used.
Outside of the SCUSD community, pro-Palestinian advocacy groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) representatives also attended in support of Adenwala, however, their participation raised concerns of outside interference with district matters. Similar concerns are raised on the side of her opposition as well. StandWithUs, who filed the complaint against the district, works in partnership with the pro-Israel lobbyist groups American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Israeli-American Council (IAC) – both groups critsized for lobbying for America’s continuous funding of Israel’s military – for their strategy and research department. In the complaint they filed, they demanded that SCUSD provide staff training that uses materials from organizations such as StandWithUs, to assist staff members in dealing with topics regarding Israel. They also requested the district make a formal statement “recognizing that Zionism is a key component of Jewish identity for many SCUSD families.”
High community turnout at the hearings and continuous community participation throughout the case has demonstrated the vocal nature of the SCUSD community. Students and parents alike have come together to vocalize their opinions. However, the involvement of outside groups, particularly in the filing of complaints, brings into question how much say the community truly has over the decisions made by the board that represents them.
