The Hayward Unified School District (HUSD) has made national news recently, with its quarter-million-dollar "Woke Kindergarten" program that asks teachers to "confront white supremacy and disrupt whiteness." The HUSD school board, consisting of far-left activist trustees, rushed to punish the whistleblower teacher by putting him on leave for "allegations of unprofessional conduct." 

But the ideological rot in this underperforming Bay Area school district goes much deeper: for the last four years, the HUSD has mandated a series of "Anti-bias/Anti-racism (AB/AR)" staff trainings. Since 2020, all HUSD teachers, administrators and other district employees have been forced to sit through grueling sessions of identity politics indoctrination and check their "privileges and biases" if they were uncomfortable with the training materials. Employees were required to repeatedly engage in mental exercises including "racial affinity groups," "implicit bias," "antiracist practices," "levels of oppression," and etc. 

Three courageous and fed-up HUSD employees had contacted CFER for support and given us all the training materials. To help defend their constitutional rights to equal protection and free speech while protecting the whistleblowers' anonymity in fears of personal retributions, CFER has filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of them against the HUSD with the Alameda County Office of Education and the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. Our complaint alleges:

"HUSD is engaged in unlawful discrimination against its employees through a series of biased and hostile professional development programs. HUSD's years-long and ongoing implementation of race-based training programs under the banner of "anti-bias anti-racism" (AB/AR) violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Article I Section 31 (a) of the California Constitution, state anti-discrimination laws and Board policies."

To safeguard equality, CFER has supplemented our legal advocacy work with administrative complaints filed on behalf of our supporters and constituents. In April 2021, we led a coalition of five partner organizations and represented two teachers in a civil rights complaint against the San Diego Unified School District regarding its unlawful, discriminatory training of teachers and employees. That was our nation's first-ever civil rights complaint challenging practices of critical race theory. In June 2022, we submitted a complaint to the Poway Unified School District (PUSD) and the San Diego County Office of Education, regarding the former's discriminatory treatment of a concerned parent who voiced disagreements with the school district's teaching of Ethnic Studies. In September 2022, CFER filed a complaint against a San Diego Unified high school teacher who taught his students that Trump supporters and conservatives were "fascist."

What makes this case in Hayward Unified particularly egregious is the on-going and systematic nature of the mandatory AB/AR staff trainings. For four years, HUSD educrats have collaborated with third-party DEI firms to inculcate its employees on the fringe theories of antiracism and force them to accept the divisive, race-based ideology. To make matters worse, the school district has demonstrated its willingness to retaliate against whistleblowers and dissidents. The HUSD is also not slowing down on its route to racially segregate its staff and compel them to endorse corrosive identity politics, as more AB/AR training sessions have been scheduled for Spring and Summer 2024. CFER will fight for the three HUSD employees represented in our complaint and fight against HUSD's discriminatory training apparatus.

I hope you find encouragement in CFER's continuous resolve to advance equal rights and that we will bring you positive developments in this case. If you are ever forced to attend professional development trainings like HUSD's AB/AR series, please let us know by replying to this email. In the meantime, if you trust CFER as a strong organization championing equality and free speech, please make a kind donation to help us grow our reach and impact!