AB 715 turns classrooms into censorship zones, not learning spaces.
Following widespread opposition from educators, teachers’ unions, student advocates, and legal organizations, the bill was pulled from its Senate Education Committee hearing in July. Good news: The Legislative Jewish Caucus (LJC) and the California Israel Lobby have not been able to negotiate amendments that are acceptable to the Senate. As a result, there was no committee hearing during the week of September 2nd, as originally anticipated. That said, the LJC is pushing for AB 715 to be heard in committee the week of September 8th (likely Monday or Tuesday, September 8th or 9th). If scheduled, we must be ready to mobilize immediately.
AB 715 is a dangerous censorship. If passed, it would criminalize open discussions on Palestine, silence dissent, and punish educators who teach history with integrity. The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee needs your help to stop it. AB 715 comes straight from the Project 2025 playbook. It uses a vague and politicized definition of antisemitism to equate criticism of Israel with hate speech, undermining academic freedom, erasing Palestinian voices, and chilling Jewish anti-Zionist perspectives. It gives tremendous power to a new Antisemitism Coordinator, with no parallel protections for Arab, Muslim, Black, LGBTQ+, or other marginalized students.
AB 715 weaponizes the Uniform Complaint Procedure (UCP) to silence teachers and censor classrooms. This bill supercharges a legal strategy already used by Israel’s proxy groups to punish educators. Baseless complaints function as the punishment itself. Even when dismissed, the process intimidates and gags teachers. Teachers are interrogated, falsely accused, and threatened with job loss for teaching honestly about current events. UCP confidentiality makes abuse hard to track and at least dozens of cases have surfaced in the past two years.
Examples of anti-civil rights abuses:
- Teachers report being targeted, gaslit, and terrified, especially teachers of color who champion student identity and empowerment.
- A 2nd-grade teacher displayed student identity flags (including a Palestinian flag) → strangers filed 10 outside complaints, teacher and students harassed (including drone surveillance).
- A Palestinian parent wore a flag garment at a multicultural festival → school investigated; parent forced out of the district.
- A middle school teacher compared U.S. settler colonialism to Israeli occupation → investigated for “discrimination,” complaint dismissed, however chilling effect remained.
California students deserve better.