(Washington Stand) A coalition of parents in northern California has sued the Palo Alto Unified School District for a high school field trip to a mosque in the fall of 2025. “Students allegedly were encouraged to wear Islamic religious attire, were given Qurans, observed prayer, engaged with participants in a Quran-memorization program, and were exposed to messaging that portrayed Islam as uniquely aligned with social justice work,” the August 7 complaint declares. Strikingly, not a single family involved in the lawsuit is Christian.
The field trip took place as part of Palo Alto High School’s “Social Justice Pathway,” a three-year course track for sophomores through seniors. The program just happens to share its initials (SJP) with Students for Justice in Palestine, a college organization expelled from some campuses for its extreme pro-Hamas demonstrations in 2024.