Lawsuit claims ‘reverse racism’ taught by Santa Barbara school district

A lawsuit has been filed against the Santa Barbara Unified School District and another nonprofit organization named ‘Just Communities Central Coast’ accusing them of teaching an anti-Caucasian, -anti-Christian message to students and teachers.

The lawsuit was filed a day before Kate Ford and Rose Munoz were sworn in as the newest members of the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

The lawsuit was filed by a group called ‘Fair Education Santa Barbara Inc,’ reportedly formed by a group of parents who want the school district to cut ties with Just Communities Central Coast. Former California attorney general candidate Eric Early, of the Los Angeles-based firm Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae, is the Plaintiff’s attorney.

“The goal of the filing this lawsuit is to get this contract between the district and JCC thrown out,” said Early.

He said he represents “a number” of parents, but did not release their names.

“We have strong grounds, my clients support communities of all races creeds, colors and sexual orientation, but they do not support any program like JCC which is teaching this blatant anti-Caucasian anti-Christian message to students of the Santa Barbara Unified School District.”

In October the school board renewed the contract with Just Communities despite the threat of a lawsuit by critics who said the training contract should have gone through a bidding process.

The public information officer for the district said the suit has no merit. Lauren Bianchi Klemann said they plan to fight it vigorously.

“The ‘Just Communities’ diversity, equity and inclusion program is not how it is portrayed in the complaint as an anti-Caucasian, anti-Christian outlier, in fact, it is similar to those used by other education institutions like Oregon State and University of Southern California,” said Bianchi Klemann.

‘Just Communities’ executive director Jarrod Schwartz said training examples he has seen have been altered or taken out of context. He said they are not an accurate representation of who they are or what they are about.

“We were founded as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, we still today have people of all faiths. backgrounds as part of our organization,” said Schwartz who added that the small nonprofit will struggle to afford the legal battle ahead.

Fair Education’s attorneys plan to file a motion for a preliminary injunction with the intention of freezing the contract until is thrown out.

The school isn’t likely to take up the issue until the next closed session is called in January 2019.