BY ALLISON LEVITSKY
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto school board member Todd Collins, who is in the middle of his first term and isn’t on the ballot Tuesday, has launched a last-minute effort to prevent the top-fundraising candidate from winning one of two open seats on the school board.
The Committee Opposing (Kathy) Jordan for School Board 2018 was set up on Wednesday and funded with a $2,668 loan from Collins, which was spent on an ad running in today’s Palo Alto Weekly.
“She has a temperament that is not always what you’d look for — she’s very persistent, she’s very dogged in her pursuit of what she believes is right, but she is not always as collegial,” Collins told the Post. “I mean, she can run over people.”
Collins said that because Jordan hasn’t been endorsed by any newspapers or elected officials, he didn’t become concerned that she would win until last month, when new campaign finance filings showed that she had raised $51,988.93 and spent $43,565.94, an unprecedented amount for a school board campaign.
The ad states that Jordan is “wrong for Palo Alto School Board” and references Jordan’s hostile relationship with the Campanile, a Palo Alto High School newspaper that Jordan repeatedly emailed.
Collins said the committee represents a “pretty wide group” of Palo Alto High School parents, some of whom have children who felt intimidated by Jordan while writing for the Campanile.
Collins declined to name any of the other supporters because, he said, they are parents who fear retaliation against their children if Jordan is elected.
Paly bathroom assault
In her emails last year, Jordan repeatedly demanded that the teens correct articles stating that an incident of forced oral sex in a Paly bathroom in 2016 was determined to be consensual.
Jordan only stopped emailing the students after the district hired a First Amendment lawyer to draft an email that former Paly Vice Principal Janice Chen sent to Jordan, telling her that the students were feeling threatened, stressed and harassed by Jordan’s emails, phone calls and text messages, which Chen said sometimes occurred more than once a day.
The Campanile eventually corrected the statement about the sexual assault last month, running the correction alongside an editorial criticizing Jordan’s “aggressive tone toward student reporters in the name of protecting victims of sexual assault.”
In an email to the Post yesterday, Jordan said Collins’ ad was an “attempt by the status quo to silence a school board candidate who stood up for a 14-year-old student sexual assault victim.”
“I’m sorry to hear how the students felt; it’s also important to recognize how the Campanile reporting that the incident was ‘consensual’ made the 14-year-old student and her family feel, after she reported to Paly staff that she’d been sexually assaulted,” Jordan said. “We also need to recognize the impact on other student victims of the Campanile’s reporting, and how that reporting might have deterred them from coming forward.”
Jordan accuses Wojcicki of covering for Diorio
Jordan said she should have realized earlier on that the students didn’t have access to accurate information at the time of their reporting last year.
“The adults they relied on were not providing them with that information,” Jordan said. “I only contacted the students directly after realizing I could not depend upon the Campanile teacher advisor.”
Jordan has accused Campanile advisor Esther Wojcicki of helping to cover for former Paly Principal Kim Diorio and other administrators who were found to have mishandled the October 2016 sex assault.
On May 18, 2017, Wojcicki emailed Diorio and then-Superintendent Max McGee to tell them she hoped they would like the next day’s issue of the Campanile.
Wojcicki said the paper’s “main message” was that Channel 2, which aired an interview with the sex assault victim stating that she had been assaulted in the bathroom, had gotten the story wrong and that the incident was “consensual, not an attack, and the community got upset because they did not have the correct facts.”
Wojcicki said the Campanile also communicated that “the administration acted according to the law and did a good job of it.”
In September 2017, an outside law firm that examined the district’s response to the sex assault found that Diorio and other administrators mishandled the girl’s report of being sexually assaulted.
The damning report has led the district to hire a full-time administrator to oversee the district’s compliance with sex discrimination law.
Areas of agreement
Although Collins has strong concerns about Jordan as a candidate, he agrees with her on many of the issues that she cares about.
“I’m sympathetic with a number of Kathy’s positions. I think she’s a good spokesperson for some of these positions and I applaud her zeal, but her approach leaves something to be desired, and this is a dramatic illustration,” Collins said.
In fact, after Jordan raised concerns about the student news reports, Collins emailed Deputy Superintendent Karen Hendricks and Title IX Compliance Officer Megan Farrell to ask that the Campanile retract the articles.
“I believe the statement is unverified (whether true or false), and therefore constitutes spreading sexual rumors, which is prohibited by board policy,” Collins wrote to Hendricks on Nov. 2, 2017. “If a student paper printed, ‘X was caught doing it with Y’ as news (true or not, verified or not), would we allow it?”
Collins said he has since learned that the board can do little to censor student publications under the California Student Free Expression Law of 1977, which affirms the right of high school newspapers to publish what they choose as long as it’s not obscene, libelous or slanderous.
That means that board members can’t involve themselves in student publications in the way that Jordan attempted to as a parent and advocate.
Student editor’s view
“Her conduct surrounding students has been absolutely unacceptable,” Ethan Nissim, one of the Campanile’s five editors-in-chief, told the Post. “I get that her intentions come from a good place, but I don’t think that excuses her conduct, especially toward students.”
Nissim cited one instance in which a student reporter set up a meeting with Jordan, but when the girl said she would be accompanied by an advisor, Jordan refused to meet unless the teen came alone.
A school board candidate claiming to be “anti-harassment” and “pro-student” should understand the risk of a student meeting an adult alone, Nissim said, especially after the teens received communications that were “the most aggressive and the most persistent contact we’ve ever gotten from someone.”
The Campanile’s retraction and editorial about Jordan was mostly well received, Nissim said, other than an email from a “very prominent Kathy Jordan supporter” that was “much more strongly worded and somehow a lot less respectful” than Jordan’s emails to the Campanile.
Wojcicki said that in her 36 years in the district, she’s never gotten involved in a school board race until now. Wojcicki worries that if Jordan is elected, teachers and administrators would resign, deteriorating the quality of students’ education.
“She lacks appropriate conflict resolution skills. She doesn’t talk to people. She just gets really angry,” Wojcicki told the Post. “Her way of dealing with problems does not work for students or for teachers. She’s just completely inappropriate.”
Why did the Campanile just not correct their reporting after her first email? They did not read it? Their adviser knew it was wrong, why did the adviser not tell them to correct it? What was in it for the Paly administration and the adviser? The email would have stopped. The emails are not attacking, they just tell them to do the right thing.
How is Wojcicki still allowed to be an advisor to the Campanile when she allows her students to print unverifiable information that sullies the reputation of one of their classmates? So, if the students make offensive comments via social media, it’s bullying and they can be suspended, but if they do it through the school-sanctioned paper, it’s news?
Collins tells the district admin AND the Title IX coordinator that spreading sexual rumors is prohibited by board policy and they still don’t do anything. Does Collins speak up? No, he sits back as more articles are published classifying the assault as consensual. Nice job, Todd. It doesn’t take censorship to point out your view to the teacher advisors of the paper. But, Wojcicki’s concern was to protect the image of the school and the principal, she couldn’t care less about the student. (It’s also worth noting that Diorio is now working for Wojcicki’s Moonshot company.)
Did Wojcicki encourage the students to give the victims side of the events as the Mercury News provided in their paper? If I remember correctly, the victim told the boy several times, “no, I can’t do this” before he forced her head down into his crotch. I guess Wojcicki considers that consensual.
Thank you Kathy for standing up for those who are ignored.
Shame on you Todd Collins.
At first I thought Kathy was crazy because of how she pursued the issue with the Campanile like she had, inundating a student newspaper with threatening/harassing emails (or at least emails the staff thought were threatening/harassing, I know she would disagree with that). It also felt odd that she had become the representative of the assault victim. The victim and her parents never publicly designated Kathy as their representative; the only person who said Kathy was the victim’s rep was Kathy. But there’s no question that Kathy doggedly went after the Campanile and got them to correct their error. So hats off to her, though it seems like a lot of effort over a minor thing. Maybe she’s got OCD?
But … it looks like Kathy’s going to win, and maybe that will be okay for Palo Alto. PAUSD has had a lot of problems in the past few years with Ken Dauber in charge. I don’t see any point in re-electing him, it will just be more of the same. OTOH, Kathy is obviously focused on righting wrongs and stopping injustice to students. I think she’ll stand up to abusive teachers and administrators, given how she’s handled Wojcicki. So she’s got my vote. The way I look at it, is that after four years of Dauber/McGee, things can’t get worse, so why not give Kathy a try.
The following is an email exchange between Esther Wojcicki and Paly’s then principal Kim Diorio, shortly after the May 9, 2017 board meeting where Kathy Jordan raised the issue about Diorio’s record of covering up sexual misconduct allegations. (https://www.pausd.org/sites/default/files/pdf-faqs/attachments/Legal_PRA_kdiorio_ewojcicki_5-8-17_5-17-17.pdf)
From: Kimberly Diorio
To: Esther Wojcicki
Subject: Re: Board meeting
Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2017 1:39: 24 PM
Thanks. I was attacked. It sucked.
Kathy Jordan. Mom of a [redacted] grader.
Love you!
******************************************
From: Esther Wojcicki
Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 1:36 PM
To: KDiorio
Subject: Board meeting
Kim
I heard how you were attacked at the board meeting. So sorry you had to endure that. First, I want you to know that Campanile will write an editorial supporting you and everything you have done. Second, I would like to talk to that parent by myself Can you send me her contact info. She is crazy….clearly
You are one of the best principals we have had
Esther
Esther Wojcicki
Kathy Jordan’s 2 minutes speech at that board meeting can be found at ~27 min of the video recording (http://midpenmedia.org/palo-alto-unified-school-district-board-meeting-55/ ). See for yourself whether Jordan is “clearly . . . crazy” as Woj described in the email.
Thank you for sharing the PRA link. Here’s another email exchange:
****************************************************************************
From: Esther Wojcicki
To: Kimberly Diorio
Subject: Re: FYI
Date: Thursday, May 11, 2017 10:49:30 PM
Attachments: Screen Shot 2017- 05-11 at 10.47.15 PM. Png
Not sharing it. Don’t worry. Also, I saw a parent who wants to have a meeting at her house about “the rape culture” at Paly. Her name is [redacted] I know her well and might be able to talk with her if we decide that is appropriate. She posted it on Facebook. See attached.
******************************************************************************
On Thu, May 11, 2017 at 10:44 PM, Kimberly Diorio wrote:
Thanks. I wouldn’t share it, althoughI might need your help on this one. I’ll come by Campi tomorrow afternoon.
******************************************************************************
From: Esther Wojcicki
Date: Thursday, May 11, 2017 at 2:44 PM
To: KDiorio
Subject: FYI
Kim
Here is the information I got from Kathy Jordan. She sent it to me to share with the students. Not sure I be sharing it though.. To be determined.
Esther
I’m voting for Kathy so that she can terminate the bad teachers. Woj is probably protected by Tenure, but if there is anybody who can find a way to get rid of the bad apples, it is Kathy!
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. If Kathy felt that the Campanile had made an error, she should have sent an email to the editor asking for a correction. If that was rejected, she could have contacted the faculty adviser. If that wasn’t satisfactory, then she should have gone to the principal and finally the school board.
Instead, she harassed the students with a blizzard of emails. These emails were so threatening that the school district had to hire a lawyer to get her to stop.
Kathy demanded to have a meeting with the students without the advisor being present.
Kathy doesn’t have the people skills, judgement or temperament to be on the school board.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW IF KATHY IS AN HONEST PERSON, look at the ad she’s running with the logos of the different newspapers (the Post, Weekly, Mercury News). She wasn’t endorsed by any newspaper. But the ad makes it look like she has their endorsements. It’s designed to blend in with the other ads by candidates who actually have newspaper endorsements. This provides an insight into what kind of school board member she’ll be, if elected.
Is she any more honest than Dauber? He claimed in the campaign in 2015 that he wasn’t the instigator of the sudden surge of OCR investigations that had overwhelmed PAUSD. Then the Post printed emails between Dauber and OCR that showed he was telling OCR about potential PAUSD cases, and was talking to “as many as a dozen families who are considering filing their own complaints,” to quote a February 2013 email unearthed by the Post. It’s interesting how Collins can ignore Dauber’s past behavior but has a problem with Jordan.
PAUSD is in DENIAL! CDC data reports 25% of kids in high school have experienced sexual assault. 25%!! But look at the PAUSD UCP log – so few dare to even report. Why? Because PAUSD’s toxic culture is no different than the White House!
PAUSD used a student publication to smear and retaliate the victim who reported – not just once, but SEVEN TIMES!! Now, a committee is formed to smear and retaliate the board candidate who spoke up for the victim.
Shame on PAUSD!
As the parent of a Campi editor, it’s clear these students go to great lengths to research and present their articles, and unlike people commenting here, are willing to apologize. The Campi staff are proud members of a student led newspaper, which means they think for themselves. To assert, as Ms. Jordan has, that these students condone rape is absurd. If you are interested in knowing what the students have to say check out their articles. In October 2, 2017, edition of the Campanile the authors clarified their initial report and in an attempt to clear up any misunderstandings the editorial board issued this apology on October 4, 2018, https://thecampanile.org/2018/10/04/title-ix-misconduct-clarification-apology/. These students have also written about their experience with Kathy Jordan https://thecampanile.org/2018/10/04/addressing-board-candidate-kathy-jordans-past-interactions-with-the-campanile-staff/. Before voting, read these articles, and do what our students do, think for yourself.
Yes, please check out the many articles where the paper calls the assault “consensual” with only the boy’s lawyer and Paly principal’s word. Also check out the Mercury News article, here: https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/16/assailant-in-palo-alto-student-sex-assault-controversy-to-leave-school/
The assault victim is quoted as saying, “he grabbed me at my waist and he locked the door,” the second victim said. “He started kissing me. I said, ‘I don’t know if I can do this. I can’t do this. No, it hurts. I don’t want to do this.’ ”
The assailant first tried to turn her around, she said. Then he tried to have her straddle him, then demanded oral sex and forced her head down. She said she felt as if she didn’t comply, he would hit her.”
So, the self-thinking students felt that this was consensual? You should be very proud. He has a future at Fox News, or maybe on the Supreme Court if he thinks this is consent.
Do they really go to “great lengths”? Did they attempt to talk to the victim or her lawyer? The Mercury News managed to get a hold of her. The Campanile managed to walk 50 yards to talk to the principal who was disciplined for how she handled the assault and eventually “resigned”. The boy was convicted of rape in a separate case.
Nice work. It took them over a year to apologize.
Jordan’s supporters always use the line that she’s trying to do the right thing. I saw a letter to the editor in the paper this morning using that line, and I think somebody on this thread said the same thing. Is it the “right thing” to harass students to the point that they feel threatened and ask for a lawyer to fight Jordan off? Is it the “right thing” for Jordan to refuse to meet with the student journalists if their faculty adviser was going to attend the meeting? Is it the “right thing” to make teenagers feel fearful and upset? I sure don’t want her on the school board or anywhere near our schools!!!
The Paly newspaper portrays a rape of a 14 year old girl that occurred at school as consensual sex.
Kathy Jordan sent multiple requests for retraction, but Paly published a total of seven articles portraying the rape as consensual.
In an adult workplace, sexual harassment much less rape would lead to termination of employment since being at work with a rapist is traumatic for a victim.
In an adult newspaper, the journalist would answer their requests and immediately publish the retraction and apology.
In Palo Alto, the concerned parent who reached out to the student because their paper’s article is retraumatizing a girl is vilified. Kathy’s persistence in trying to stop this harassment of a victim is portrayed as harassment.
And a committee is formed to ensure that all future parents who defend other students will be silenced.
Bravo Palo Alto.
The really damning thing here is the coverup that Wojcicki engaged in. She promised the principal the story would be covered a certain way. I thought coverage decisions were up to the student editors?
There are so many problems allowing a student publication to be free of adult supervision (meaning school principal, School Board and/or Superintendent). Many of the comments in this thread identify these kinds of problems in spades.
Take the situation where Jordan is supposed to have met with a student alone. Reporters for newspapers should be able to meet with sources, or interested parties, without having another adult present. In the case of a school paper, the students are not responsible for anything, they are not adults, and they should not be meeting with people not associated with the school alone. Some sort of protocol should be in place which demands a responsible adult, employed by the school (or its agent, such as the schools attorney) be present when student reporters meet with members of the public. This didn’t happen. While Jordan should have been more prudent—the school was negligent for not having these protocols in place, and/or the student was negligent for not following the protocols.
It would easy to produce any number of problems with a school paper “wandering off the reservation” and creating significant problems for the school, the Administration and the community. It would be a lot better to recognize these possibilities and reign in school papers so that they don’t feel free to print, or say, anything that they want.
This debate underscores what a mess the PAUSD is. The board can’t handle money correctly, giving the teachers a ridiculously generous contract that they had to take back when their property tax estimates turned out to be wrong. They allow a sex offender into Paly, and when he re-offends, they go into a cover-up. Title IX complaints go un-investigated. A student newspaper that is being edited by its faculty adviser, who is covering for her principle. A million dollars a year in lawyers fees. This story is depressing on so many levels. I don’t trust Dauber to fix things because he helped create some of these problems. I think the challengers are in over their heads. I know I won’t be voting for either Dauber or Jordan.
Couldn’t agree more.
Couldn’t agree more.
Double-Thumbs-up for the PA DAILY POST – for a well-balanced featuring sitting Palo Alto School Board Member, Todd Collins’ deliberate “ANTI-Kathy-Jordan-Campaign”, and school board candidate Kathy Jordan! This is what good journalism looks like: well-informed & nuaunced.
To contrast an ethical, and well-run newspaper like the PA Daily Post, look at PAOnline’s article (see link below). Please take especially a moment to read through their readers’ comments below their article. PAOnline editors *deleted* all posts that were not to their liking! Check out how many comments boxes feature read [Post removed.] OR [Portion removed.] Even going so far as to partial edit reader’s comments, so that nothing too negative remained, but so that they can maintain the appearance that they allow their readers to voice their opinions! Think fascist, state-run newsfeeds that one usually only finds in Communist Countries like Russia, or in the US with news stations like FOX News, who predominantly feature Pro-Trump news: PA ONLINE IS AN UNETHICAL NEWSFEED, suppressing their readers’ freedom of speech/opinion. My comment to their article was erased within 10 minutes of posting it. And my follow-up comment – a criticism of their erasing my opinion piece – was erased even faster: 3 minutes! It was the first time I had ever posted any comments online to any newsfeed. I am extremely disgusted with PAOnline!. SHAME ON their editors! A quickly conducted experiment uncovered how their *journalists* operate: by asking a few friends who had already decided to vote pro Kathy Jordan, to post a few PRO Kathy Jordan comments, and to then wait and see what happened – sure enough – ALL of their comments showing a dissenting opinion were erased within minutes! One friend even had THREE posts deleted.
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2018/11/02/committee-forms-against-school-board-candidate#comment_form
Paly Parent
@Paly-
You mentioned the censorship. FYI, many censored comments, including a past censored comment written by Kathy Jordan can be found on a page I dedicated on my blog to the ongoing censorship.
I copy and then post comments before and after they are censored here (only a tiny sampling) here:
https://villagefoolopenboard.wordpress.com/editing-before-and-after/
(or search for: village fool palo alto before and after).
Also,the following questions were censored by PA online. I posted the following several times since May, 2014. Fool’s questions:
“… The following is a partial list of questions I asked myself, particularly in light of the recently published allegations around the prior principal’s actions and his subsequent demotion. I do hope that these questions were properly considered:
1. Was Ms. Diorio aware of the sexual harassment allegations that were investigated by PAUSD officials before those became a cause for PAUSD official’s investigation?
1.1 – If Ms. Diorio was aware of the allegations:
1.1.1 Where did she take the info?
1.1.2 – If she was aware, and did not forward the info, why didn’t she? (Was it because she was afraid of retaliation?)
1.2 If Ms. Diorio was not aware of the allegations –
1.2.1 Was she approachable to the woman who felt harassed?
1.2.2 How come she was not aware?
2. Streaking, campus culture etc. sampling –
2.1 Did Ms. Diorio think that a clothes-optional school is a blessing to this community?
2.2 If she did not approve of the streaking occurrences, where did she take her concerns before she was promoted? What did she do about her concerns?
Basically, if any of the allegations published about the prior principal are correct, did Ms. Diorio roam around campus with her eyes/ears/mouth closed? And if so, why?…”
Above copied from my blog link: https://villagefoolopenboard.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/blog-housekeeping-and-a-new-broom-sweeps-clean-but-the-old-broom-knows-the-corners/
(or search for: village fool palo alto cleanup Hercules)
It’s funny the Post mentioned the Palo Alto Weekly. I’m a longtime Palo Alto resident and I haven’t seen the Weekly in years. Todd Collins wasted all that money on an ad in that paper and I’ll bet more people read about his concerns regarding Kathy Jordan in the Post than will ever see the nonexistent Weekly.
The Weekly is pretty thin these days and I don’t think they deliver it to condos or apartment complexes, so most people never see it. I hope it doesn’t go away, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did. It’s a shadow of its former self.
On the Campanile Oct 4th hit article on Kathy Jordan, can someone explain to me how CA Education code 7054(a) was not violated? https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/education-code/edc-sect-7054.html? It specifically calls out influencing a school board election:
EDC § 7054:
(a) No school district or community college district funds, services, supplies, or equipment shall be used for the purpose of urging the support or defeat of any ballot measure or candidate, including, but not limited to, any candidate for election to the governing board of the district.
(b) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the use of any of the public resources described in subdivision (a) to provide information to the public about the possible effects of any bond issue or other ballot measure if both of the following conditions are met:
(1) The informational activities are otherwise authorized by the Constitution or laws of this state.
(2) The information provided constitutes a fair and impartial presentation of relevant facts to aid the electorate in reaching an informed judgment regarding the bond issue or ballot measure.
(c) A violation of this section shall be a misdemeanor or felony punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both, or imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months, or two or three years.
@EDC 7054’s the true author is probably Kathy Jordan, since she has a propensity to quote code sections without understanding the law. Ed Code Section 48907 clearly affirms the right of high school newspapers to publish whatever they choose, so long as the content is not explicitly obscene, libelous, or slanderous. This is settled law, Kathy. Nobody is arguing Section 48907 doesn’t apply to the kids at Paly. In case you don’t believe me Kathy, here’s a link to the law https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC§ionNum=48907 … And here’s the key clause in the law:
“48907. (a) Pupils of the public schools, including charter schools, shall have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press including, but not limited to, the use of bulletin boards, the distribution of printed materials or petitions, the wearing of buttons, badges, and other insignia, and the right of expression in official publications, whether or not the publications or other means of expression are supported financially by the school or by use of school facilities, except that expression shall be prohibited which is obscene, libelous, or slanderous …”
Kathy, you’re probably going to be elected on Tuesday given the ungodly amount of money you’ve raised. Be very careful when you get on the board about quoting laws you don’t understand. You’re not a lawyer. This isn’t the first time you’ve made this mistake. I’m not voting for you. Your ugly, harassing tone toward the Campanile staff and its advisor disqualify you for the school board. I believe Stacey Ashlund will do a better job speaking up for students and Shounak Dharap, a real attorney, is certainly more knowledgeable and experienced than you are. They’ve got my votes. I’m not voting for Dauber because he’s had four years and nothing has improved, and arguably things are worse. He doesn’t deserve another chance.
I like Kathy’s ad in today’s Post blasting the ad that Todd Jordan took out in the Weekly yesterday. Way to go, Kathy!
If you haven’s seen it, pick up a copy of the Post right now before the boxes are all empty.
No, I’m not Kathy Jordan, and she didn’t put me up to this. Besides, slinking around on discussion forums isn’t her style.
I’m obviously not a lawyer myself but was seeking clarification. Thanks for pointing me at EDC 48907. Your points are understood.
I can’t believe that Ken Dauber, Todd Collins and others are spending so much on being negative. They have written a divisive, mean, aggressive, and whiny advertisement about big mean Kathy Jordan. What are they afraid of the truth? In a society filled with fake news we should demand that in our small community politicians remain accountable. Todd Collins and Ken Dauber shame on you! Vote those two bums out!
@48907,
The law you cited, EDC 48907, also provides that
(c) Pupil editors of official school publications shall be responsible for assigning and editing the news, editorial, and feature content of their publications subject to the limitations of this section. However, it shall be the responsibility of a journalism adviser or advisers of pupil publications within each school to supervise the production of the pupil staff, to maintain professional standards of English and journalism, and to maintain the provisions of this section.
EDC 48907 is also known as the California Student Free Expression Law. It gives the student editors the authority over topics to cover or opine on, and the faculty advisor are responsible only to supervise the production of the student staff, to maintain professional standards of English and journalism, and to maintain the provisions of this section. Nowhere does the law authorize a faculty advisor like Esther Wojcicki to decide for her student staffers on what topics the Campanile should cover, such as writing an editorial to support then principal Kim Diorio, or to attack a school board candidate.
As @Paly Senior above pointed out: “The really damning thing here is the coverup that Wojcicki engaged in. She promised the principal the story would be covered a certain way. I thought coverage decisions were up to the student editors?”
Btw, @48907, are you a lawyer yourself?
What is sad is that the Campanile never corrected the story. In their “apology” they write, “To clarify, what we should have reported was that “consensual underage sexual activity” was the charge filed by the District Attorney.”
That statement is from the boy’s lawyer. What they should have done, was give quotes from the victim to show her side of the story. They took the attorney’s statement from the Mercury News. That same article in the MN had quotes from the victim making it clear there was nothing consensual.
I’m not sure how their so-called advisor can be proud of what she is teaching these students about fair journalism.
As someone said, “there’s a right way” to get things done. This isn’t the only student organization that has felt Kathy’s abrasiveness in trying to get things done her way or no way. In my many years at Paly, I haven’t found any collaboration in this candidate. I like her as a person, but not as someone working with others with all of our kids’ interests at heart.
Don’t elect her.
Not sure I’m gonna believe anything “Tricky Dick” suggests.
Vote FOR JORDAN
I am one of the victims in this case, specifically from the 2015 assault in the church bathroom.
I believe Kathy Jordan would be an excellent school board member. She has shown an unwavering willingness to combat sexual assault and rape culture at every level in the school district. Even after everyone else moved on after the initial community drama when the story came out in May 2017, Kathy Jordan has stayed the course and continued to combat the injustices in the system.
I personally contacted members of the Campanile before the offending story was published and was in touch with them throughout the entire process. They were completely out of line in listing the other victim’s case as “consensual”, and I called them out on that from the very start. They told me they would change it, but never did. I eventually gave up. I commend Kathy Jordan because she did not.
Furthermore, all the other media articles have stated that it isn’t that the 2016 assault was deemed “consensual”, but rather that the only verdict was “sex with a minor” (as opposed to ‘sexual assault’). “Sex with a minor” doesn’t indicate the incident was consensual. It just means that, for whatever reason, prosecutors did not or were not able to press more charges. The Campanile was 100% wrong in spreading misinformation that shamed one of the other victims and further perpetuated the rape culture at Paly.
Kathy Jordan courageously stood up to that, and has continued to do so, to the point where she has felt motivated to run for public office. I view her as a passionate, educated, and change-driven woman who would bring PAUSD – and our community as a whole – the changes it so desperately needs.
Dear Victim #1,
Thank you for speaking up!
I saw your post also on the now locked thread on another online publication.
I want to think no one responded to support you as there is no way to know if the one who wrote your comment is the real victim.
Having written that, I decided to respond, bearing in mind the possibility that the comment was not written by the actual victim. It may have been.
Thank you, again, for speaking up!
I hope you are getting the support you deserve. I hope the silence online does not reflect the current support you are receiving.
“The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.”― James Baldwin
Wishing us all days a future where Baldwin’s words will be irrelevant.
Wishing you the very best
\/ill/\ge fool
kathy didn’t “run over people”. She broke through barriers, a system that overlooks and ignores and covers up.
Todd himself criticize the magazine on this exact same incidence. What did he accomplish on this matter? Was it because he is too collegial? Kathy’s email was sent to the formal principals, the adviser, all school board members. What action did they take? Was it because they are too collegial?
We need a board member we could count on to stand up for what is right and push for resolutions.
I’m really troubled by the copied PRA emails between Esther Wojcicki and Kim Diorio. Ms. Wojcicki call’s Kathy crazy for what? For asking the Board to look closely at the role of the school leader in a failed Title IX investigation (no investigation) with a known predator unwatched on campus? Would it ever be OK for Ms. Wojcicki to call a community member crazy for speaking his/her mind? And, then Ms. Wojcicki implies that she has the news story “covered”. Seriously, I understand Ms. Wojcicki is highly respected, but she has overstepped the boundaries and her failure to make this a teaching moment for the students turned the Campanile into a coverup newspaper instead of a respectable student paper. Forget about the School Board for a second (although it’s hard to forget that Todd Collins funded this ad to hide Lynn Brown’s chums), why does Ms. Wojcicki still have a job exactly?
Wojcicki’s goal was to put a positive spin on the story so that the principal and the school came out looking good.
Principal was later disciplined for how she handled it, so she obviously failed in her charge as principal.
If Wojcicki relied on the police report to determine consensual sex as she claims, why not offer to show Jordan, or anyone, that report. The whole thing can be easily cleared up.
Ken Dauber had four years to clean up this culture of corruption and coverups. He didn’t get the job done. I’m voting for only Jordan and not for Dauber.