PeerK12 has received multiple reports from students and families regarding a school-sponsored “Men’s Mental Health” video shown in San Dieguito Union High School District classrooms on April 20, 2026. 

While the topic of mental health is both appropriate and important, the setting in which the message was delivered was not neutral. 

The teacher appeared seated directly beneath a Palestinian flag, introducing a highly controversial political symbol into a District-approved and classroom-based activity.

The timing further compounded the impact. The video was shown on Yom Hazikaron - Israel’s Memorial Day, a solemn day for Jewish and Israeli communities. For affected students, the combination of political symbolism and this specific date created an environment that was perceived as emotionally triggering and inappropriate.

Students who reported the incident to PeerK12 expressed fear of retaliation and did not feel comfortable raising concerns - fears that are objectively reasonable given the District’s prior actions. 

This reflects a broader and ongoing concern among families regarding inconsistent standards and a lack of viewpoint neutrality in District classrooms.

PeerK12 is calling on the District to take the following actions:

• Provide a clear explanation - during the April 23, 2026 Board Meeting (Agenda Item 8C: Mental Health Awareness Month Proclamation) - of how this video and its setting were reviewed and approved

• Establish and enforce clear expectations prohibiting political symbolism or personal political expression by staff during school-sponsored activities

• Ensure classroom neutrality by publicly supporting and implementing the CORE-ACTION “Keep Politics Out of Classrooms” campaign 

• Reestablish a Jewish Parent Advisory Group with regular engagement to ensure meaningful collaboration between families, educators, and District leadership

Classrooms must remain environments focused on education - not political signaling. All students deserve to feel respected, supported, and free from ideological pressure.

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UPDATE

During the April 23, 2026 school board meeting, Superintendent Anne Staffieri responded to the incident during her Superintendent's Report (view recording here). 

PeerK12 is incredibly disappointed to see the Superintendent first admit that the video in question was in fact reviewed and approved by multiple people who each failed to activate the District's own Board Policies on Controversial Issues and Political Neutrality with regards to the video; and then, following that admission of guilt, she proceeded to victim blame the Jewish community - presumably for standing up for our violated Jewish civil rights. 

The irony that Jewish mental health (for men or otherwise) is NOT a priority that this Superintendent is interested in protecting. We condemn her entire public statement:

".... As I mentioned - and we know - no one can control what others may post on social media. But I can assure our school community, and all of you as Trustees in our incredible district, that we will always strive to provide you with verified, factual information. Multiple social media posts are being shared broadly which inaccurately depict Torrey Pines, and are causing great concern and questions among community members, so I am going to address this and share context and the truth. 

One post involves a video that shows a portion of a Tour de France flag and a Palestinian flag in the background and it is being perceived as a political statement, with absolutely no context. I can see where some people could interpret it as such. 

However, I can assure you it was neither political nor intentional. I personally dove into the situation to get the full information, and here are the facts. Student leaders in the Peer Assistance Listeners, or PALs program, recently asked a teacher if they could record a short video statement in support of men’s mental health, being that May is Mental Health Awareness month. Being a terrific supporter of student engagement and student wellbeing, the teacher, who is also an AP Social Science teacher, agreed. He sat down at a student desk in his classroom and agreed to participate in a student-created video.  

In the background of the video, shot in portrait mode (the one that goes up and down, which as many of you know creates a very narrow view of the setting), you can see portions of a Tour de France flag and portions of a Palestinian flag.  

What you don’t see is the full perimeter of the AP Social Science classroom, which is adorned with dozens of flags from around the world including three US flags and an Israeli flag. The image in the video was interpreted by some as a political statement. It was not. 

The video was previewed by several groups, including students, teachers, and the administration. Because everyone was focused on the content and the delivery of the message and is accustomed to the classroom setting where these flags are always present, the flags in the background were not identified for removal. 

That said, the image was hurtful and deeply concerning to some members of our community, and so to those impacted and to everyone, I want to stress that this is an important lesson in content production, with a keen sensitivity to others. 

We have requested that the video be removed in order to avoid any further misunderstanding and concern. As Superintendent I don’t typically dive into the specifics of social media narratives in a public forum. However, I do think it is important as not only social media posts result in misinformation and hateful commentary, they can also provoke threats of violence. 

Earlier this month there was as “swatting” incident, where threats were made against a staff member drawing the attention and protection of the San Diego Police department. Authorities quickly determined the threat was not credible, and at no time was the safety of the campus compromised. However, it did result in a disruption to the learning environment of the entire campus. I personally was on that campus the entire time of that event, and we engaged law enforcement and closed campus for a time.  

The point is, statements taken out of context with the intent to provoke the community against a school, or against a staff member, can have very real and potentially dangerous consequences. For these reasons, it is very important that as a school community that we do not fall victim to online false narratives, and we encourage anyone to seek confirmation of allegations before engaging with the content.  

I don’t want to leave you with an impression that we will not act on information that demands responsible attention. We always will work on the side of truth, facts, and what is best for our student and staff wellbeing.  We continue to place a paramount priority on student and staff safety on all our campuses. I want to personally acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of our staff, who continue to show unwavering commitment to supporting students despite these unsettling experiences. We appreciate their focus, care and resilience in the face of challenging and often unfair public narratives. 

Information and opinions that have been broadly shared without context or facts have caused deep concerns and demanded resources that should be focused on more positive work with our students. And there is so much great work taking place across the district.  Every day, talented, passionate, professional educators and support staff create amazing learning environments for our students. 

Our families expect exceptional education, and those people, our staff, work tirelessly to deliver nothing less than extraordinary teaching and learning.  Our district, I've heard it several times tonight, is ranked in the top 20 of all the publicschool districts in the nation. There's over 13,000 public school districts in the whole country and we're ranked in the top 20. 

All of our schools, all of them, have been recognized as California's distinguished schools. I'm very honored tomorrow to join with leaders and staff celebrating recent recognition from four of our school sites as they receive the 2026 California Distinguished School recognition. Let's talk about that in social media.  Really, thank you for your patience as I read through this message, but we can all do better, and as we move through these final weeks in the school year, our focus is going to remain on supporting students and one another with care, with purpose, and with intention."

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And here is Trustee Michael Allman's public comment on this incident - we'd like to thank Trustee Allman for his moral clairty on this issue: 

"I want to make a few comments on the recent issue regarding the Palestinian flag so we can be clear where I stand and I think the district as well. One is the importance of keeping politics out of our classroom. 

We have a board policy on controversial topics. It's not about what any individual believes, it's about maintaining a classroom environment where every student can feel safe and focused on learning, and not on political conflict. I think it's also useful for members of our public to understand that there's two important legal principles that are relevant here that they might not really understand, or will be surprised when they hear about it.  

First is that our teachers don't have First Amendment rights in the classroom when they're performing their jobs. The courts have been very consistent about this, that a teacher on the job is an employee who's executing the district's curriculum. They're not there with their own private free speech.  

And second is that we as a public institution can’t engage in viewpoint discrimination. As a public institution, our choice is binary. We either prohibit all political statements and symbols in the classroom, or we permit all of them. And if we allow the Palestinian flag, we better be prepared to allow every political symbol from any viewpoint, and we've seen how quickly that can become divisive and it's harmful ultimately to students. 

Another point I want to make is that the district adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Definition of Antisemitism. It's the most widely accepted standard used by governments and institutions worldwide, and that definition draws what I think is a very important distinction - the distinction between being critical of the policies of the Israeli government. That's legitimate political discourse. 

But if you argue that Israel should not exist as a state, that's antisemitism - the denial of people's rights to their own self-determination. So in our current environment where the Palestinian flag is frequently displayed alongside explicit calls for Israel's elimination by leaders of the PLO and Hamas who adopted this flag, we cannot ignore the message that that sends to our Jewish students and families in our community. 

Our antisemitism policy, our controversial topics policy, and basic viewpoint neutrality all point to the same conclusion. As Steve, the National Conflict Resolution Center gentleman said earlier tonight, prevention is the key. I'm a big believer in that. If we want to prevent conflict and hurt feelings and community division, we need to draw a clear and consistent line before these incidents occur. Let's keep controversial political topics out of the classroom, consistently, without exception. It's not suppression of anybody's individual's viewpoints. They can believe whatever they want, but it's a responsibility of us to be stewards of a public institution."