Two journalism students at a Bay Area high school are suing their principal and the district, alleging they were unlawfully intimidated while covering a story about sexual harassment for the school newspaper.
The student newspaper advisor is also part of the lawsuit, alleging that she was retaliated against for not accepting the “censorship campaign” targeting student reporting, according to the complaint, filed last week in County Superior Court. Santa Clara.
The lawsuit was filed against the Mountain View Los Altos High School District and Mountain View High Principal Kip Glazer, calling her an “authoritarian high school principal” accused of “intimidation, threats and [the] coercion of student journalists.”
“Glazer did what she could to silence student journalists and, effectively, to silence victims of sexual harassment at Mountain View High School,” the complaint said. Jean-Paul Jassy, a lawyer and adviser to the students, has represented Times journalists in other cases.
Glazer did not respond to a request for comment from the Times, nor did the district superintendent's office.
The two students who filed the lawsuit, Hanna Olson, now co-editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, and Hayes Duenow, a former student reporter for the newspaper who is now a freshman at UC Riverside, are not seeking financial damages. in the case, but we want to ensure that the school's journalism students are free from censorship in the future.
“I wouldn't feel good if I didn't know that I'm doing everything I can to make sure our journalism program stays strong,” said Olson, a 17-year-old senior at Mountain View High. “I want to make sure our newspaper is protected and that we never again have to fear censorship or retaliation for publishing anything.”
The lawsuit alleges that the principal and the district violated the California Education Code, which provides strong protections for student journalism and free speech with few exceptions, such as obscene, defamatory or libelous content. It also claims that the defendants violated state labor laws by retaliating against the newspaper's advisor, Carla Gómez, by removing her from that position without just cause and eliminating the school's introductory journalism class, the gateway for her to The students joined the student newspaper, the Oracle. Gómez is seeking financial damages in the case, as well as the resumption of her journalistic advisory role and the reinstatement of the journalism course.
The article that sparked the lawsuit reported on several cases and patterns of alleged sexual harassment between students at the high school. While the students finally published the article last spring, the final story included “substantial changes” (including the deletion of key details) from earlier drafts, after pressure from Glazer, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleged that Glazer wanted to “avoid embarrassment rather than respect and defend the constitutional and statutory rights of his students and faculty.”
Duenow was one of the reporters on the article and Olson helped edit it.
“It was definitely difficult to edit and research that article, just because of the nature of the story,” said Olson, who hopes to pursue journalism as a career one day. “But I think it would have been a disservice to [the reporters] …and to the students who were brave enough to tell their story if we had not published that article.”
When the school administration learned of the article, Glazer went to the journalism class and told students to write about the school in a “positive light” and asked to review a draft of the article, according to the lawsuit. He later met with Gómez and the students working on the article, when he “intimidated and intimidated the student journalists” into removing portions of their reporting, according to the lawsuit.
“Students have the right to have a student-run publication,” said Gómez, who also teaches English, philosophy and American literature, and received additional training to become a journalism consultant. “Journalism cannot survive if it is being scrutinized by people in power who are able to intimidate students into not writing about important things.”
Gomez connected students to the Student Press Law Center, but Olson still recalled feeling pressure from her director.
In previous years “we didn't have a lot of problems or interference from the administration…so it was pretty surprising to see how much our administration opposed the publication of the article,” Olson said. “I remember thinking, 'Are we doing something wrong? Have we gone too far in researching and researching this topic? … It's scary when you have people who, in some way, fund your newspaper, but also people who are in positions of power, telling you that you're doing something wrong.”
After their meetings and pressure from Glazer, the students altered the article in several ways, including removing a description of a disturbing incident, the name of an after-school program involving an alleged serial stalker, and the concerns of an accuser. that the school was not holding bullies accountable. , according to the demand. The article had always used pseudonyms for the alleged harassers.
The Oracle, the student newspaper, has a history of tackling difficult topics, generating headlines in 2013 and criticism from parents for a story about sex and relationships, but administrators supported the students' work. The superintendent at the time was quoted in the East Bay Times calling the student newspaper “outstanding” and that “there is nothing I would have written down.”
But a month after the sexual harassment article was published last year, Gómez was removed as a journalism advisor and the introductory journalism course for the fall was canceled.
According to the complaint, school officials have said that no substantive changes were made to the article after Glazer's review and that the introductory journalism class was cut due to lack of enrollment.
“Instead of bullying student journalists, Mountain View High School administrators should listen to them, empower them and support them,” Gary Green, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said in a statement. “Students' in-depth reporting on a serious issue in Mountain View is precisely what the California legislature intended to protect.”
For Duenow, who is studying sociology in college, the lawsuit is an opportunity to continue defending the high school newspaper and ensuring that all students have a voice on campus.
“I think journalism and especially student journalism is incredibly important,” Duenow said. “I think our voices can be a superpower. …I wanted to be part of [the case] because I wanted it to be an example of how important it is to fight for the ability to use your superpower, to use your voice.”
