For Immediate Release

September 22, 2023

SAN DIEGO, CA – September 22, 2023- The Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER) expresses our strong support for the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) Students First in its diligent pursuit of education excellence, academic transparency and local education accountability. CFER also condemns the SUHSD Board for disregarding community and parental opposition to an equity-focused proposal that eliminated ten Honors and Advanced Standing (AS) classes in four SUHSD high schools.

SUHSD Students First, a grassroots coalition of student advocates, parents, teachers and community members dedicated to holding the school district accountable to high-quality education, has been fighting to restore these ten rigorous Honors/AS courses since March 2023. Sadly, their efforts, which include a joint letter signed by over 600 students, parents, teachers and community members, have fallen on deaf ears as the school board refused a vote at the September 20 Board Meeting to reverse its previous decision to eliminate these classes.

Comparing this development to similar events such as the cancellation of high school honors classes in San Diego’s Patrick Henry High School, CFER President Frank Xu commented: “It is an alarming trend when ‘equity’ as a fancy euphemism is invoked to lower standards and attack academic excellence. While SUHSD’s equity-based reform claims to create more diverse learning environments and increase student success, it does the exact opposite and pulls resources away from student learning.”

“As a brown immigrant and parent of two recent SUHSD graduates, I am deeply concerned about the actions our district has taken over the last few years in eliminating ten Honors/AS,” said Ram Duriseti, community volunteer and parent. “Lowering the bar for students is the soft bigotry of low expectations. There was no public awareness or transparency and it was fundamentally anti-democratic.”

"As a teacher at Carlmont for over 20 years, I have personally witnessed endless students of all socio-economic and academic levels benefit from advanced course offerings. It saddens both me and many of my fellow faculty members that steps are being taken to remove academic opportunity and I urge the board to reverse course," said Jayson Waller, Carlmont High School Social Studies Department Chair.

Student Trustee Jacob Yuryev stated, “The elimination of introductory honors courses negatively affects passionate students who aren’t intellectually stimulated enough in standard courses.”

Going forward, CFER will continue to support the battle for high-quality education fought by SUHSD Students First and other local stakeholders. We urge the SUHSD Board to fully consider public concerns and reverse course on its anti-merit plan.

The following is the list of Honors/AS classes that have been eliminated at our comprehensive sites.

1. Menlo Atherton High School - AS Biology, AS Chemistry, AS Physics, AS English I
2. Woodside High School - AS Biology, AS English I
3. Sequoia High School- AS Chemistry
4. Carlmont High School - AS Biology, AS Chem, AS Physics