Several years ago, JALSA members helped to encourage adoption of a new state school curriculum requirement on Genocide.  The curriculum adopted by the Dept. of Education allowed teachers to select from a range of historical acts of genocide to meet the interests of different student populations.  A resource list of suggested materials was provided.   Teachers were left to their own discretion as to what materials within or outside of that list to use for the unit.   At the request of Turkish groups, materials were added to the Curriculum Resource list that denied the Armenian Holocaust.   Subsequently the Department of Education removed those materials.   A classroom (including teacher and parent) challenged the removal of those materials as censorship.

JALSA provided an amicus brief in that lawsuit arguing that the Dept. of Education had a right to determine what materials should be listed as reflecting the core curriculum. The establishment of the resource list did not prevent teachers and students from bringing in a range of materials to the classroom.   Lower federal courts agreed and now the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to take up the case; thus a victory for the position argued in the JALSA brief.

See: JALSA Victories for an earlier story on this issue.