A high school social justice pathway in Palo Alto is the focus of a lawsuit after students visited a mosque, as a group of parents is claiming the school’s recognition of Islam showed a preference for one religion over their own.The lawsuit centers on a fall 2025 field trip organized through Palo Alto High School’s Social Justice Pathway, a three-year program that focuses on social justice issues in the community, as Palo Alto Online reports. The parents allege the visit went beyond academic instruction about religion and amounted to the school promoting Islam.According to the complaint, students visited a mosque and learned about Islam’s connection to social justice. They were given Qurans, and female students were offered hijabs to wear, which were optional. They also participated in activities connected to Noor Hifz Academy, a religious youth program. The complaint also alleges that students were “exposed” to Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR reportedly faced national and local criticism in 2023 after its national director, Nihad Awad, made comments about the October 7 Hamas attack. The following year, Palo Alto rescinded funding for a multi-faith picnic after CAIR joined as a co-sponsor.Billoo disputed the parents’ characterization of her participation, telling the Chronicle that she spoke from her experience as an American Muslim woman working in civil rights and social justice. She said the students’ visit was voluntary and that learning about religious practices does not violate religious neutrality in public schools.“Public schools and the government have an obligation to remain neutral toward religion, but what neutrality does not mean is shielding students entirely,” Billoo said.According to a description of the Social Justice Pathway, the three-year, project-based program is centered on student choice, community action, and experiential learning. A student video about the course explains that students begin sophomore year by identifying local and global issues they want to study, with past topics including societal beauty standards, racism and colorism, the women’s movement, Black Lives Matter, and the Dakota Access Pipeline. The video also shows students learning from people with a range of backgrounds and experiences, including a Holocaust survivor and a Cambodian refugee, and taking a variety of field trips as part of their coursework. Students are reportedly encouraged to develop their own solutions to the issues they study, with the program describing its goal as addressing social problems through “transformative rather than temporary relief.”The plaintiffs include two Jewish parents of Palo Alto High students, three former Jewish students, a Hindu parent, and a Zoroastrian. They argue the district’s treatment of Islam as a social justice faith diminished the standing of their own religious traditions, and contend that the field trip violated their constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The complaint also raises concerns over photographs taken of students during the trip and allegedly shared publicly without specific parental consent. The parents argue the district should have anticipated the risk of students being photographed in a religious setting and adopted safeguards to prevent their images from being publicly associated with a particular faith.They claim that the school district’s choice to highlight Islam “conveyed preference for one religion and disfavored or stigmatized others, including students and families who do not share the promoted religious perspective,” per Palo Alto Online.In addition to monetary damages, the plaintiffs are seeking an admission that the district was negligent in supervising students, violated students’ privacy rights, and infringed on the parents’ due process rights. They also allege violations of the California Constitution, arguing that the district gave preference to one religion and allowed students to be publicly associated with a faith without informed parental consent.The lawsuit names Palo Alto Unified School District and Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline as defendants. According to the Chronicle, the district had not yet filed a response as of the filing, and a case management conference is scheduled for November.Superintendent Jason Glass said the district learned about the lawsuit through news coverage and had not yet been formally served. He said district policy requires religious instruction to be academic rather than devotional, and prohibits promoting or denigrating any faith. The district is reviewing its practices, he said, but would not comment further while the litigation is pending.Related: Congress to Grill SFUSD’s Maria Su, Two Others on Parental Rights ‘Abuses’ In SchoolsImage: Palo Alto High School ...read more read less