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PVUSD previously used an ethnic studies grant from the California state government to sign contracts with CRE in 2021 and 2022. A similar contract came up for a vote in 2023, but was rejected after PVUSD community members raised concerns about antisemitism. "Liberated" ethnic studies activists then launched a campaign demanding that the district ignore the Jewish community and continue paying CRE, which resulted in antisemitic harassment targeting a Jewish school board member. The district gave in partly due to the election of new board members who support "liberated" ethnic studies in November, 2024. 

In March and April, 2025, PVUSD board members publicly demonized Israel, smeared prominent Jewish organizations, exploited a small minority of Jewish voices to dismiss concerns about antisemitism, engaged in ageism, and made ignorant comments about Jewish "economic power" and "privilege". No other board members or district leaders spoke up to challenge this hate and bias. District staff said they would create a "community committee" on ethnic studies with "differing viewpoints" represented, to help keep antisemitism out of the curriculum. However, part of the district's new ethnic studies contract pays CRE $50,000 to "support" and "guide" the development of this committee, raising further doubts about the district's promises. The $90,000 contract with CRE also comes shortly after the district decided to lay off up to 60 teachers and staff members. 

"Schools should not be battlefields in any war, let alone one targeting the Jewish community, especially at a time when antisemitism is rising to crisis levels across California," said Carly Gammill, Director of Legal Policy at StandWithUs. "It is now the responsibility of PVUSD and California state agencies to ensure that the anti-Jewish sentiments of board members and their chosen contractor do not result in any form of bias or bigotry within the district."

By Todd Guild (pajaronian.com) -September 5, 2025

About 50 people gather in front of Driscoll’s headquarters on Westridge Drive in Watsonville to protest pesticide use in area agricultural fields. (Tarmo Hannula/The Pajaronian)

Watsonville activist Omar Dieguez and a group of community leaders announced a hunger strike and started the movement with a protest outside of Driscoll’s headquarters Tuesday in Watsonville. 

About 50 people were protesting the use of toxic pesticides near homes and schools in Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley. 

Dieguez announced that he began his fast on Sept. 1 and will continue for 30 days. He is being joined by several community leaders who will fast for various lengths of time.

Dieguez released a public statement to Driscoll’s and California Giant Berry owners, urging them to transition their fields near homes and schools to organic and stopping the use of toxic pesticides.

 “Enough is enough,” the statement reads. “For too long, you have poisoned our community with toxic pesticides that harm our farmworkers, our immigrant and Indigenous families, our youth, and all of Pajaro Valley. You are contaminating our water, our land, our oceans, and the very air we breathe. This must stop now.”

Dieguez says in the statement that, as a young boy growing up near the fields, he acquired acute asthma. 

“Many of my friends have suffered from cancers and other health problems that many of the same chemicals used in your berry fields are known to cause,” he says. 

Dieguez says that the companies have the resources and capabilities to end pesticide use immediately and transition to safer practices.

“Impacts from pesticides go on for decades,” Gabe Medina, Pajaro Valley Unified School District board member, told the crowd. He spoke of family members who were sprayed “directly” while working area fields, and of cancer and strokes that have affected his family.

“This is what pesticides do to us: They impact us physically and mentally,” Medina said. He demanded proper screening of students at schools for added protection and spoke strongly of area leaders coming forward and standing up for what is right “and challenging corporations that see us as disposable units in order for them to make profits.”

Adam Scow of Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture, a grassroots organization of residents of the Monterey Bay, stated: “Local activists are coming together to put their bodies on the line in support of the movement to stop toxic pesticides. Our region is actually a leader in organic agriculture with nearly 20 percent of the Pajaro Valley being organic. So we need more of it in the right places.”

The specific fields near Pajaro Valley homes and schools are illustrated on a map released by the Campaign for Organic & Regenerative Agriculture, available at the website link here: