Student journalist and former advisor threaten lawsuit over ‘de facto censorship’ at Mountain View High

The former advisor of Mountain View High School’s student newspaper and one of the student editors-in-chief are threatening to sue the school district for what they describe as “de facto censorship” of the publication last spring.

An attorney, representing the Oracle’s former advisor Carla Gomez and senior Hanna Olson (through her mother Sara Kopit-Olson), sent a letter to Mountain View Los Altos Union High School District officials on Sept. 27 threatening legal action if the district didn’t meet a list of demands. Those included agreeing in writing to reinstate Gomez as advisor and releasing a written apology and commitment not to engage in future censorship.

The letter gave the district 10 days to comply. Attorney Jean-Paul Jassy – who is representing Gomez and Olson pro bono – told the Voice that he has spoken to a lawyer representing the school district, but that the district has not met their demands. According to Jassy, he is actively reviewing the situation and continuing to gather information. Moving ahead with a lawsuit is a “very strong possibility,” he said.

Superintendent Nellie Meyer and school board President Phil Faillace both declined to comment and said that the district “will be adhering to its practice of authorizing only attorneys representing the District to speak on its behalf about such matters.” An attorney who Faillace said was representing the district did not respond to a request for comment before the Voice’s deadline. Mountain View High Principal Kip Glazer also did not respond to a request for comment.

The dispute arose over an article about sexual harassment that the Oracle published last school year, which Principal Kip Glazer allegedly took issue with. Before the article was published, an assistant principal told Gomez that Glazer would not allow the article to be published if the name of a student accused of sexual harassment was included, according to Jassy’s letter to the school district. Gomez allegedly replied that she would not instruct The Oracle staff to omit the student’s name because it wasn’t within her role as advisor.

Glazer then came to the journalism class and told students that they should write about Mountain View High in a “positive light” and that the newspaper should be uplifting for the school, Jassy wrote. Glazer allegedly said that although she didn’t want to, she could censor the article, which Jassy disputes she had the power to do.

Glazer also met with student reporters who were working on the article and told them that there could be “catastrophic consequences” from publishing the piece, according to Jassy’s letter.

After reviewing a copy of the article before publication, Glazer told the students it was too long and that they should remove any specific descriptions of sexual harassment, Jassy wrote.

“The students listened respectfully to Dr. Glazer,” Jassy’s letter states. “They made a few changes to the article for journalistic reasons, but, what is much more troubling is that the students made many more changes to the article because they were afraid of upsetting their Principal, Dr. Glazer.”

Olson told the Voice that while she feels certain choices, like removing student names, were correct, the extent of Glazer’s involvement and the changes she pushed for went beyond what was appropriate.

After the article was published, the school announced that an introduction to journalism class, which students took before joining the Oracle, would not be offered in the 2023-24 school year and that Gomez would be replaced as advisor. Gomez declined to be interviewed for this article, referring questions to Jassy.

At the time, the changes drew concern and opposition from Oracle staff, as well as the advisors of other student newspapers in the area, who worried administrators wanted greater control over student journalism at Mountain View High.

District officials attributed the removal of introduction to journalism to declining enrollment. As for the advisor switch, they pointed to an interest in expanding career technical education (CTE) classes, which are meant to prepare students for jobs. Gomez doesn’t have a CTE credential, while her replacement, theater teacher Pancho Morris, does have one. At the time, Gomez told the Voice that she was open to obtaining a CTE credential and Morris said that he thought he’d need a different one because CTE credentials are industry-specific.

According to Jassy’s letter, Glazer falsely told students last spring that Gomez didn’t want to pursue CTE certification, when she had told the principal the opposite. Gomez is currently pursuing the certification and even with the advisor switch, the district’s CTE coordinator told Gomez that the Oracle isn’t a CTE course this school year, Jassy wrote.

“Thus, there was no legitimate reason for Dr. Glazer to fire Ms. Gomez as the journalism adviser,” Jassy wrote.

Olson told the Voice that the district’s conduct created a lot of stress and emotional burden for Oracle staff and has led students to distrust the school administration.

The lack of an introduction to journalism class has also been difficult, Olson said, with Oracle staff and their new advisor left to figure out how to teach new students basic skills like how to write articles and about journalism ethics.

“There’s been a severe lack of communication. I think that removing Ms. Gomez was just a wrongful choice.” Olson said. ” It sets a really bad precedent for student journalism in the area.”

In California, the state education code explicitly gives legal protections to student journalists. Administrators aren’t allowed to censor public school publications unless the content falls into specific prohibited categories, including being obscene, libelous, slanderous or posing a “substantial disruption” to school operations.

California education code also provides protections for advisors, prohibiting retaliation against an employee “solely” for protecting student journalists who are acting within the law.

Jassy told the Voice that he continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding Gomez’s removal, but that the evidence gathered thus far suggests that the district’s justification that it switched advisors because of CTE credentials doesn’t hold water.

As for the sexual harassment article itself, Jassy’s letter to the district argues that Glazer’s actions amounted to “impermissible de facto censorship.”

“When the most important person in the school – the principal – comes in and tells you ‘We want the newspaper to be more positive and uplifting,’ that’s not something that a high school student, or a group of high school students are going to ignore,” Jassy told the Voice.

In the spring, Oracle editors including Olson released a written statement that there wasn’t “direct censorship” of the article and that it was students’ decision to remove certain details.

Olson’s views have since changed, she told the Voice earlier this month. Originally, she said that she didn’t want to hurt the newspaper or cause more issues and was trying to ensure the class had some stability. Having now talked more with her classmates, student journalists and advisors at other schools, and her attorney, Olson said that she believes the actions Glazer took constituted censorship.

“After looking back on what happened and getting other perspectives, I do think that the conduct was wrong,” Olson said. “Just the premise of wanting to have so much influence over the publication of this article was, to me, a violation of the rights of the publication. ”

Myesha Phukan, one of the writers of the sexual harassment article, similarly told the Voice that she and her fellow students had been navigating their first experience with the administration wanting this much involvement, and weren’t fully informed on the different forms that censorship can take.

“I think it was a combination of a lack of knowledge (of) what to do in that situation, but also just fear of not wanting to upset the administration,” Phukan said.

Both Phukan and Olson said that the actions administrators took have had a negative impact on the Oracle and have made their work more challenging.

“It was hard on the community and hard on the Oracle to see our advisor be removed like this and see all the changes go forward,” Olson said. “It makes me personally feel like the Oracle has been devalued within Mountain View High School’s community.”