San Diego parents are suing the State of California for including Aztec prayers in state-approved curricula, the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER) said in a press release Friday.
The three parents are joined in their lawsuit by CFER. The lawsuit was filed against the state of California, the State Board of Education, the State Department of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in his official capacity, according to the press release. It contends that the proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) violates the California Constitution’s free exercise of religion and no government aid clauses because it includes Aztec and Ashe affirmations in the curriculum.
“The ESMC’s unequivocal promotion of five Aztec gods and the Yoruba religion through repetitive chanting and affirmation of their symbolic principles constitutes an unlawful government preference toward a particular religious practice,” president of CFER Frank Xu said in the press release. “This public endorsement of the Aztec and Yoruba religions fundamentally erodes equal education rights and irresponsibly glorifies anthropomorphic, male deities whose religious rituals involved gruesome human sacrifice and human dismemberment. Alarmingly, this is only the tip of the iceberg with the ESMC being California’s trojan horse of CRT!”
⚡️⚡️⚡️BREAKING: We filed a lawsuit against the State of California on its approved ethnic studies model curriculum. Taking down the CRT mammoth one step at a time! @realchrisrufo @ConceptualJames @peterboghossian @jordanbpeterson https://t.co/uYYxdrwtZ0
— Wenyuan Wu, Ph.D. (@wu_wenyuan) September 3, 2021
“The Aztec prayer component, in particular, worships five Aztec deities who invoked human sacrifice, human flaying and other inhumane acts,” Wenyuan Wu, Executive Director at Californians for Equal Rights, told the Daily Caller. “It is outrageous that an affirmation of these Gods was approved by the State of California in its model curriculum of ethnic studies.” (RELATED: Teacher Who Boasted About Turning His Students Into Revolutionaries Set To Be Fired)
ESMC was approved by the California State Board of Education in March 2021. It is a curriculum that is “deeply rooted in Critical Race Theory (CRT) and critical pedagogy,” according to CFER. CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.
“The Aztec Prayer component, titled ‘In Lak Ech Affirmation,’ and the Ashe Prayer component are two glaring examples of ESMC’s unconstitutional and CRT-based nature,” the press release said.
According to State Constitutional Provisions, California’s Constitution prohibits any state funding associated with teaching of a religion in the classroom.
“No public money shall ever be appropriated for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, or any school not under the exclusive control of the officers of the public schools; nor shall any sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught, or instruction thereon be permitted, directly or indirectly, in any of the common schools of this State,” specifies Article IX, Section 8 of the California constitution.
California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and the San Diego Unified School District were contacted regarding this lawsuit. Neither responded at the time of publication. The article will be updated pending replies.