Organization Citizens for Quality Education—San Diego
Cell 858-967-0465
Email cqesandiego@gmail.com
Website https://www.facebook.com/groups/CitizensforQualityEd/ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 15, 2017
CITIZENS FOR QUALITY EDUCATION-SAN DIEGO WORKING WITH FREEDOM CONSCIENCE DEFENSE FUND (FCDF) TO HELP STOP SAN DIEGO USD’S DISCRIMINATORY AND ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL ANTI-ISLAMOPHOBIA POLICY
San Diego, CA. Members of Citizens for Quality Education-San Diego (CQE-SD), along with other concerned parents and citizens in San Diego will be attending the San Diego Unified School District Board Meeting for a second time on Tuesday, May 16 at 5:00 pm at the Eugene Brucker Education Center Auditorium, 4100 Normal Street, San Diego to continue to demand the school board rescind the discriminatory “anti-bullying” policy crafted specifically for Muslim students.
CQE-SD, founded in 2012, is a non-partisan group of civic-minded individuals who care about how American children are being educated. We have tackled a variety of educational issues including student privacy, data mining, budgets, Common Core testing, inappropriate sex ed, and now Anti-Constitutional Anti-Islamophobia policy.
“This policy disproportionately serves Muslim students and casts aside other students who face severe bullying in equal or greater measure because of their religion, gender, disability, or sexual preference. Both the FBI and DOJ studies continue to report, year after year, that Jews are by far the biggest targets of religious hate crimes in the United States.” Mary Baker, founder of CQE-SD.
This policy favors one religion (Islam) over all others. It is not the role of a government entity such as a public school to promote religion; it violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause which prohibits unduly “favoring one religion over another.” Chief Legal Counsel, Charles LiMandri of FCDF rightly states the District’s “collaboration with CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) raises questions of impermissible, “excessive government entanglement with religion.””
For these reasons, CQE-SD is critical of the District’s decision to establish a formal partnership with CAIR, to promote the select advocacy for Muslim culture, to adhere to Islamic religious practices and accommodations in schools for Muslim students, to support biased reviewing and vetting of materials related to Muslim culture, and to expand the restorative justice approach to disciplining students who are accused of bullying Muslim students specifically.
“When we create a climate where it’s OK to celebrate diversity and difference, then it makes all of our children safer.” stated SDUSD Board Trustee Vice-President Kevin Beiser.
It is unfair and hateful to favor one set of students over another. CQE-SD demands SDUSD rescind the policy. We ask the public to come to the SDUSD board meeting and join the debate.
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