Kennedy Tran, a current 9th grader at Lowell, stood alone at the podium. All eyes and ears were on her, making her feel anxious. Tran was concerned that no one would understand her point of view. Tran was attending the July 29th, 2025 SFUSD Board of Education meeting, hoping to express her concerns with the district’s 1-year ethnic studies mandate, enacted starting for the class of 2028 and beyond. Standing in front of an audience of board members, teachers, parents, and other community members, Tran stated her reasons for disagreeing with the policy. She explained that her Individualized Education Program (IEP) meant she would have to take an extra class of study skills, and if she took ethnic studies, she wouldn’t get to take Japanese like she wanted, a subject she has studied since the first grade. For these reasons, she planned to opt out of the typically mandatory class.
While Kennedy is not alone in her objections to ethnic studies, she is a part of a small population of students who took action on the basis of their experiences. Out of the approximately 750 students in this year’s freshman class at Lowell, only about 6%, approximately 45 students, decided to opt out of ethnic studies. Students stated a variety of reasons for transferring out of the class, ranging from personal issues to political stances.
While ethnic studies is class required by SFUSD, students are able to submit course-change request forms at the beginning of the year and un-enroll from the class, as long as they make up the credits before graduation, either by taking ethnic studies in a later year, or alternately, taking AP African American Studies, which the district has decided would earn the same credits.
While ethnic studies has been an offered class in SFUSD since 2010, in 2021, the SFUSD Board of Education adopted Board Policy (BP) 6146, making ethnic studies a required two-semester class for all freshmen. At the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, students in SFUSD were told that they would be automatically enrolled into a full year course of ethnic studies for their freshman year. However, concerns about material in the curriculum, and with the mandatory class itself, emerged, setting off a debate among parents, educators, and administrators about the class’ importance.
In response to the controversy, the district implemented a new curriculum, called Voices, at the start of the 2025-2026 school year. This new comprehensive curriculum covers Indigenous, Black, Latino, AAPI, and Race and Ethnicity studies. Still, some groups, like the Friends of Lowell Foundation, disagreed with the content of the new curriculum because of certain aspects that could be interpreted as hurtful to certain groups. The alumni group has been very vocal in their disapproval of the class. Their website states, “This curriculum, Voices, includes content that is hurtful to students of many backgrounds, including Jewish and Asian students.” Their concerns included a mention of how Asian Americans have experienced “whitening”, or “being absorbed into the expanding category of being called White,” according to the Voices textbook. They noted that this feels inaccurate and doesn’t give credit to the experiences of Asian Americans.
Ella, a freshman under a pseudonym, echoed similar concerns to the Friends of Lowell Foundation about the class. She explained that she had heard students talk about controversial aspects that were deemed antisemitic. Ella also noted that her older sibling had an experience a few years ago involving antisemetic slurs written on campus that was not dealt with by administration. While this issue is unrelated to Ethnic Studies as a class, This occurrence has led Ella to distrust that the ethnic studies course will handle antisemitism any better by comparison. Additionally, Ella, like Tran, also has an IEP that requires her to take study skills, which has dissuaded her from taking the ethnic studies course.
Mia Issa, a freshman, opted out of ethnic studies because she wanted to take Japanese 3 and Orchestra. After she talked to her parents, she decided that the class wasn’t something that she wanted to prioritize. She noted that she would rather be taking a history class, such as the World History class required for earlier years. “I feel like I’m missing a big academic subject,” Issa said. This argument is a key part of the ethnic studies debate: is the course really crucial for students’ learning?
Principal Jan Bautista describes ethnic studies as a way for students to “talk about identity and intersectionality of different identities and how that impacts the way we interact with each other and also how that has impacted us throughout history.” Her hope is that, “As students have that intro both in study skills and in communication skills, they are better prepared as they study everything that they want to study at Lowell.”
“Right now, it is kind of a delay,” Bautista said, meaning that students will have to take either Ethnic Studies or AP African American Studies at some point before they graduate. Alternately, students do have the option to take an Ethnic Studies college course, at City College of San Francisco, or other community colleges.
Annalise Davis, a freshman, said, “If I really can’t take any other classes or I have to pay for a class over the summer, I’ll probably just end up doing Ethnic Studies sophomore or senior year.” Ella expressed a similar opinion.” For me, it’s better to wait for this stuff to settle down and take the class later,” she said.“Hopefully by then it will be one semester instead of two, because [the current requirement] is just too much.” She will delay taking the course in hopes that the district will make the class optional, or make the requirement less.
Ultimately, the future of ethnic studies in SFUSD is uncertain. SFUSD is still aware of the concerns, and continues to have a page on their website dedicated to current information about the course. With an updated curriculum, ongoing disagreements among community members, and a small-but-vocal group of students speaking out, the conversation is ongoing.
