Sixteen-year-old Charynna Torres and 15-year-old Ihassane are sitting in a Cosumnes Oaks High School classroom in May, reflecting on the conversations they’ve had on campus about the war in Gaza.
“We were both on a group chat and people were having discussions about whether to get a present from Starbucks or not,” said Ihassane, who chose to not be referred to by first and last name for fear of retribution. “I remember a few people got annoyed about that.”
She explained that some were boycotting the coffee conglomerate for retaliation against their baristas who were in solidarity with Palestinians, while others in the chat didn’t care much about it. The overall tenor between students was that of frustration.
“I think that's really reflective of high schoolers’ stances on the war right now,” Ihassane explained. “[Some] people have strong stances and are willing to support one side, while a lot of people just aren't educated on what's going on.”
Torres nodded in agreement, finding more of her peers have no stance on the war.
“We [need to] have schools actually trying to teach and reduce the myths about this topic,” said Ihassane. “That's the only way [those who are uninformed] will gain a perspective on how serious it is.”
As the school year drew to a close, protests about war in Gaza swept college campuses nationwide. Students at Sacramento State and UC Davis staged their own encampments, with the latter ending just last month.
The protests — and the subsequent dialogues that have surrounded them — have bled into Sacramento’s high schools, and students are grappling with the complexities associated with the ongoing war in Gaza. Some students find the topic taboo, while others attempt to engage in discussions with their peers.
District officials across the region said they have equipped teachers with the resources to host conversation in their classrooms. Heather Brandt, a language arts and social science program specialist for San Juan Unified School District, explained that discussing the war is up to the discretion of the teacher.
“There's no rule that a teacher has to have a conversation about it,” she said. “It's not necessarily coming up within the standards, but current events are often looked at in history–social science courses.”
Some high school students have advocated for schools to provide more education on the history of the conflict to help them have an informed position.
Students have mixed feelings about sharing their stances on the war
Saffiya Sheikh, who graduated from her homeschool program recently, does not share her thoughts on the war with anyone other than her closest friends.
“Everyone is scared to voice their opinions because of cancel culture,” she told CapRadio. “You don't want people to know what your stance is because it causes a lot of fights.”
Sheikh added that she’s generally worried that being vocal can have repercussions on her future after witnessing the University of Southern California cancel Asna Tabassum’s commencement speech due to her support of Palestine.
“I'm scared that I might get my [college] admission rescinded,” she admitted.
Her hesitation is warranted, as showcased by two recent incidents in Sacramento’s schools where the war in Gaza has created tension.
In May, Sacramento City Unified School District put C.K. McClatchy Journalism Advisor Samantha Archuleta on an administrative leave after The Prospector, the school’s newspaper, published a series of quotes overheard on campus. The final quote, “Hitler had some good ideas,” was perceived as anti-semitic and Archuleta was removed because of her oversight on the project.
The First Amendment Coalition, ACLU of Northern California, Student Press Law Center, and California Scholastic Journalism Initiative came together to request that the district reinstate the Archuleta for what they perceived as “censorship.”
Steve O’Donoghue, director of the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative, runs a program for young journalists in Sacramento and is invested in access to free speech locally.
“Removing the advisor was clearly an effort to control what the students publish. Under California law, student speech that only makes people uncomfortable is not sufficient disruption to justify censorship,” said O’Donoghue. “To punish a faculty advisor for defending the rights of student editors sends a clear message that their editorial freedom is in danger.”
And last month, a student article in the Vista Del Lago High School yearbook about the history of the war garnered negative attention from community members. Students rallied around the journalist and the advisor at the Folsom-Cordova Unified school board meeting on June 6.
Student Annie Flores Montero spoke up at the meeting about how the censorship of a fellow student impacted her.
“We read dystopian novels about brave characters who dare to challenge the authorities [that] censor them and … our freedom of speech is emphasized,” she said. “I find it hypocritical of Vista Del Lago and all other high schools in the district to have these teachings in the curriculum and … turn around and allow the same thing to happen to one of their students under the claim that it is a partial perspective on a highly complex issue.”
The backlash students receive from voicing their opinions has a wider reach than their schools. Following the Vista Del Lago High yearbook incident, a user on the platform X — the website formerly known as Twitter — identified the student and principal of the school by name, and both were accused of antisemitism on a national stage.
“If the Visa Del Lago administrative team truly strides to be a safe, welcoming and inclusive place for all students and families, it must include Palestinians,” Montero advocated. “You cannot preach safety and inclusivity when you silence those who have made efforts for it. I urge the district to make amends.”
Student Annie Flores Montero speaks at a Folsom-Cordova Unified School District board meeting on June 6. Students, parents and district staff spoke about an article in Vista Del Lago High School's yearbook about the war in Gaza.Screenshot via Folsom-Cordova Unified School District
O’Donoghue directs administrators to the Supreme Court case Tinker vs. Des Moines, which codified students’ right to free speech nationally, and California’s education codes, which formalized it statewide. However, he cautioned students and parents to be aware of the possible repercussions.
“There's ways around it,” said O’Donoghue. “The big one is, you don't have to worry about [what] kids write in a student newspaper if you don't have a student newspaper.”
He added that his work with the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative is to keep student journalism alive, and that the numbers of school newspapers continue to dwindle — sometimes due to controversy.
Many students want more information on conflict in controlled classroom setting
Young people are taking stock of how adults in their communities manage the contentious subject matter. Sheikh, the home schooled student, said that academic institutions should be wary of how they navigate protests because it could decide who chooses to be part of their incoming cohort.
“It has impacted [whether] I want to go to this college or do I not want to,” she said.
Sheikh advocates that a classroom is a preferred place to debate sensitive subject matters.
“A classroom, it's much more controlled because you have authority figures,” she said. “When you have these discussions outside of the classroom, that's where the real trouble starts because it’s based on your personal experiences.”
For recent Bella Vista High School graduate Navya Alqarwani, seeing the university protests is significant, and confirms her commitment to the one she’s chosen.
“It inspires me because I see the student body coming together and doing something that they're so passionate about and doing it in such a way that is so meaningful and impactful,” she said.
In contrast, she finds the subject is avoided at her high school.
“High school is such a non-political zone,” said Alqarwani. “Teachers can't talk about politics to their students and students are encouraged not to even mention anything.”
But she wants to have these discussions with her classmates.
“Sometimes it feels like, as a community in my high school, [we] are choosing to ignore something that's so prevalent in our world right now,” said Alqarwani.
Some students, like Alqarwani, feel that classroom discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have lacked sufficient nuance when the topic has been broached in classrooms.
“I don't even think my history teacher really knew anything about it because I remember I was kind of informing [them],” she said, as someone who had prior knowledge and wanted to have a more robust understanding of the situation.
When it is covered, it’s mostly from a surface-level historical perspective, according to Sheikh.
“We talk about Israel and Palestine from the 90s but not necessarily the modern dilemma right now,” she corroborated.
Donsray Hicks III, who just graduated from Encina High School, said he didn’t know much about the history of the war and defaulted to asking his peers for more insight.
“[One] person began sharing their thoughts and opinions on what was going on in Palestine and kind of educating and informing me on certain things that I didn't know — this student is also from Jordan so they are definitely impacted by this whole situation,” said Hicks. He went on to do his own research.
“I would go home and I would watch a couple of YouTube videos whether they were interviews that were being held on the news or whether they were YouTubers covering the topic,” he said.
But Torres warns about getting information from outside sources.
“You know a source of a lot of the hate surrounding this topic is misinformation online or just seeing a lot of biased sources about the topic,” she confronted. “You're in an echo chamber.”
Torres, Hicks, Alqarwani and Sheikh thirst for more education on the topic, and felt that the subject matter should be discussed in classrooms more often. They argue that is the most effective method, considering the amount of charged or incorrect information online.
“I think it would be very helpful to dissolve some of this, like, tension, if schools were to give us an unbiased historical context of the conflict,” said Torres.
Some districts offer material about conflict, but discussion isn’t mandated
The larger districts in Sacramento have provided teachers with material, should they want to pursue discourse in the classroom, though that material can differ by district. In Sacramento City and San Juan Unified, teachers were given a toolkit with social emotional guidelines and details about the war on Gaza.
Brandt with San Juan Unified School District confirmed that teachers are seeking the information, largely due to student interest.
“We did get [teacher] requests for information specific to the current events going on in Israel and Gaza,” she explained. “We've already published tips to have complex conversations within the classroom.”
More importantly, she recognizes that teachers are not unbiased, but should navigate classroom discussions on the topic with a variety of sources.
“I don't think you ditch your personal identity at the door, but our role as educators is to facilitate the learning for students, not to tell them how to believe,” she said. “Our recommendation would be for a teacher to provide multiple perspectives and then facilitate that conversation.”
Without a standardized statewide framework on the war in Gaza, student experiences can vary, and perhaps be sour. In her history class, Ihassane’s teacher covers current events and wants to hear both sides, but she is aware his intention is to have a heated discussion.
“He definitely gives it through a very filtered perspective and I would say he did the same thing for this type of conflict,” she said, and added that she feels uncomfortable speaking up because she knows her teacher’s political leanings.
On the same campus, Torres spoke positively of a similar dialogue in her English class.
“We have talked about the Israel-Palestine conflict a few times, mainly because we listen to NPR news so we can get a context of what's going on in the world at the moment,” she described. “[The teacher] does a good job at presenting the facts about the situation and not letting it get heated.”
But even Torres didn’t speak up in class.
“I do get the sense that students are scared to show support to one side or the other because of the opinion of their peers,” she said.
War is a contentious and unwieldy subject for teachers and students alike, but more conversations in the classroom can be helpful for students outside of the classroom, on social media and in decision-making, Hicks said.
“I think it would be extremely nice if the teachers just took 10 minutes out of their days to go over a little video or to just have [an] open discussion about these topics just to bring more awareness to our school as a whole,” he said. “I think it's very important that a school has unity because in unity, we're able to thrive more and it just enhances the high school experience.”
Srishti Prabha is an education reporter for CapRadio and Report For America corps member.
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