A group of parents and community members has filed a federal lawsuit against the Palo Alto Unified School District and Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline, alleging that a school field trip to a mosque crossed from education into religious indoctrination.
The lawsuit, reported by The Daily Wire and cited by The Gateway Pundit, was filed August 7 in the Northern District of California. It centers on a fall 2025 visit by students in Palo Alto High School’s Social Justice Pathway to the Muslim Community Association mosque in Santa Clara.
What the complaint alleges
According to the complaint, students were encouraged to wear Islamic religious attire, received Qurans to take home, and observed a midday prayer service during the school-sponsored visit.
The filing claims the district “failed to maintain religious neutrality, failed to ensure equal treatment among faiths, failed to protect student privacy, and failed to vet, supervise, and monitor religiously divisive outside speakers during the school-sponsored event.”
The plaintiffs include 10 individuals and an advocacy group identified as Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools — San Francisco Bay Area. The Daily Wire reported that eight of the individual plaintiffs are Jewish, while Hindu and Zoroastrian plaintiffs live in neighboring communities and do not have children enrolled at Palo Alto.
Speaker’s role is part of the dispute
The complaint also alleges that students were exposed to Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The filing describes Billoo as a controversial outside speaker and claims she has made publicly documented hostile statements concerning Jews.
According to the lawsuit, Billoo “was allowed unfettered access to students to advocate personal religious and political views without balancing perspective or adequate supervision.”
Program under scrutiny
The Social Justice Pathway is described in the complaint as a three-year course track open to Palo Alto High students beginning in sophomore year.
The lawsuit further alleges that the mosque is the only house of worship visited by the program and that the mosque’s website has promoted both school visits and local religious conversions.
