Amador County – The Amador County Unified School District settlement with the Zysman family last September over alleged civil rights violations included an attachment in which the district pointed out that it was silenced by privacy law, and could not correct erroneous statements related to the case.
In Attachment B, the settlement said ACUSD and Justin Zysman “have resolved the lawsuit that arose after” Justin “complained that he was subjected to anti-Semitic harassment by other students at Amador High School.” Justin’s name was redacted from the settlement, but he appeared on TSPN TV news last year to discuss the issue, and his parents’ names appeared in documents. Both also signed the settlement.
The agreement said “in reaching a settlement, the parties do not wish to claim that either side” has “won” or “lost.” “The district continues to maintain that it was unaware of the claimed harassment” and “no district employee or administrator intentionally discriminated against” Justin “or ignored his concerns.”
The statement said the district believed it “responded appropriately when concerns were brought to its attention,” and noted that the Zysmans “feel differently.” It said: “Both sides share the goal, however, to promptly address discrimination or harassment against any member of the district community.”
“Rather than continue a fight where there can be no real winner, the parties have chosen to recognize the need to move forward constructively,” the agreement said. “The parties regret that, in the heat of litigation, there may have been misstatements made for inferred that painted either party in an unnecessarily bad light. For example, it was erroneously reported in the press that Amador High School presented a play with anti-Semitic overtones entitled ‘Hitler Youth’ that was offensive, particularly to Jewish members of the community.”
It said: “In fact, there was no such production.” A play entitled “And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank” was presented, but had “just the opposite theme – the horrors of the Nazi treatment of Jews during World War II.” It was conceived to be shown to “grades 5 through 12 to teach the horrors of the Nazi era and promote the values of tolerance.”
The agreement said because of privacy law, “the district was not able to respond to public statements,” and “this silence may have created the false impression that the district had no response or that there was truth to the statements. The ending of destructive negative public statements is one of the reasons the parties have chosen” to settle.
The agreement said both “parties recognize the importance of cultural diversity in an educational environment,” and “to further promote that goal, the district has strengthened and added to the programs available before this dispute arose.” Those include a new community building program called “Breaking Down Walls.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
