The California Department of Education has overruled Berkeley Unified School District on a complaint about a photo in Berkeley High School's 2025-26 yearbook, finding that the image contributed to a discriminatory environment for Jewish and Israeli students. The decision, issued Oct. 8 and reported this week by J. The Jewish News of Northern California and Berkeleyside, orders the district to train the school's yearbook adviser or advisers by Dec. 15, with a particular emphasis on antisemitism.
What the photo showed
The photo ran in a two-page "Social Justice" spread that mostly showed a January "Teach Palestine" student walkout and a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In it, a student holds a sign reading "Oct. 7th was a response not an attack! Do your f****** HW!", a reference to the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people. The yearbook was distributed in May.
Nearly 300 parents, alumni and community members signed a June complaint asking the district to recall the book. The Bay Area Center to Counter Antisemitism, a group formed after Oct. 7, later filed its own complaint and took the case to the state on appeal.
District said free speech, state disagreed
Berkeley Unified's civil rights investigation, dated Aug. 25, found the photo was not "so severe, persistent, or pervasive" that it created a hostile educational environment. Investigators interviewed 16 parents and two students. One student called the photo "offensive, upsetting, and disappointing" and another said it felt like it defended a violent act, but neither reported any effect on their ability to take part in school, according to the state's ruling. A vice principal had told complainants the yearbook was a student-run publication protected by free speech.
The state read it differently. Its ruling says the sign "can reasonably be understood to justify a violent attack against Israelis" and could make Jewish and Israeli students feel alienated and unwelcome. Citing California Education Code 48907, it said the case is "not about the First Amendment rights of students" but about the yearbook adviser's duty to review school publications for discrimination. The state did not order the yearbook recalled or corrected.
Reaction on both sides
Parents behind the complaint called the ruling a vindication. Others objected. Radhika Sainath, litigation director at Palestine Legal and a Berkeley Unified parent, told Berkeleyside the decision was "McCarthyite" and said she would be shocked if it wasn't challenged in court, though her group has no current plans to sue. David Loy, legal director of the Marin-based First Amendment Coalition, said a political statement on a sign cannot, as a matter of law, amount to discrimination or harassment. District and Berkeley High leaders did not respond to either outlet's requests for comment.
Fourth state ruling against BUSD since August
This is the fourth known decision since August in which the state has overturned Berkeley Unified on appeal and ordered staff training. Earlier rulings dealt with pro-Palestinian posters in an independent study classroom, a student assembly at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, and a Berkeley High classroom that displayed pro-Palestinian posters but none with a pro-Israel viewpoint. The rulings follow a new state law expanding anti-discrimination protections in classrooms with a focus on antisemitism, Berkeleyside reports.
For more on campus speech fights in the region, see our coverage of the Sonoma Valley flag policy walkout and the Brookside Elementary graffiti case in San Anselmo.