BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A resolution that condemns board member Rowena Chiu’s social media activity following a heated Ethnic Studies debate has sparked a conversation about how Asians are treated in the Palo Alto Unified School District.
The resolution failed on Tuesday (Feb. 11) after passionate comments from both sides. It was supported by board members Shounak Dharap and Shana Segal and opposed by Chiu, Josh Salcman and Alison Kamhi.
“The resolution seems to be an attempt to silence dissent,” Chiu said at the meeting.
The board voted 4-1, with Chiu against, to reassign her from her current committees — a move she disagreed with but was willing to make.
Dharap said the resolution was meant to restore trust between the board and employees who were affected by Chiu’s repost of Asians Against Wokeness on Jan. 27.
Asians Against Wokeness called out Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Danae Reynolds following the Ethnic Studies debate on Jan. 23.
The account made it seem like Reynolds was saying Asians can’t feel unsafe, Dharap said on Tuesday.
“Asians were not even being discussed,” Dharap said. “It wouldn’t even have made sense in the context because they were discussing Ethnic Studies. One of the purposes of that course, by the way, is to address anti-Asian sentiment.”
Reynolds was subject to racist comments underneath the post. She wasn’t at last night’s meeting, and Dharap said he’s worried about district employees leaving because they’re afraid their words will be twisted.
“I’ve heard administrators say ‘I’m highly employable.’ That is a scary sentence,” Dharap said.
Salcman said Chiu made a “grave mistake” and apologized for her repost, and she hasn’t shown a pattern of similar behavior.
“So then I wonder are we engaging in public shaming to some extent? And what really is the value of doing that?” Salcman asked on Tuesday.
Kamhi said she was saddened by the attention on adult behavior and wanted to get back to serving students.
Segal said Chiu’s repost was like a principal singling out a teacher or a CEO singling out an employee, bringing about racist and hateful comments.
“When board members take actions that create the potential for harassment of our employees, we risk fostering a hostile workplace environment,” Segal said.
Chiu gave a 15-minute statement. She said she would meet with and apologize to anyone affected by her repost, including Reynolds.
Chiu said her questions of teachers at the Ethnic Studies debate on Jan. 23 weren’t meant to diminish their commitment and hard work on the pilot ethnic studies course.
Chiu said she made a mistake with her repost and condemned any racist replies, but she was concerned the resolution wasn’t about that.
“It is about censoring a viewpoint that represents a large section of constituents here,” Chiu said, noting that 40% of students in the district are Asian.
Chiu invoked her background as a Harvey Weinstein rape survivor and #MeToo advocate in her repost of Asians Against Wokeness.
“In 1998, Weinstein told me, as he attempted to rape me, that he ‘liked Chinese girls, because they’re discreet.’ In 2025, as an elected official, I spoke up about Asian oppression, and I was suppressed yet again,” Chiu said in her repost.
Chiu said she deleted the repost at the request of the teacher’s union, which revoked their election endorsement of her on Feb. 7.
The Palo Alto Management Association, which includes principals, assistant principals and school psychologists, called for Chiu’s resignation.
A group of 14 former school board members, led by Ken Dauber, have also condemned Chiu.
Chiu said she’s been subject to racist name-calling and questions about her background.
“My personal integrity is constantly being called into question,” she said.
Anti-Asian hate is “very real and present” in the district, and parents are afraid to speak up, Chiu said.
“They do feel belittled, diminished, minimized and negated,” Chiu said.
Chiu said Dharap and Segal failed to list the breadth of public support for her, including a petition that more than 2,200 parents have signed.
Chiu received the most votes in the November election. A group of her supporters rallied outside the District Office before Tuesday’s meeting, including former Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou.
Chiu will leave the Fiscal Advisory Committee, the Early Childhood Programs Committee and the Special Education Committee.
She will no longer be assigned as a liaison to Hoover and Nixon Elementary Schools, Gunn High School, the PTA and preschools.
Chiu will become a liaison to the Los Altos Hills Town Council and join the Santa Clara County Committee on
District Organization and Santa Clara County School Boards Association.
Dharap said the reassignments are practical because the committees Chiu is leaving work directly with the same employees who are troubled by her repost. Dharap said Chiu could go back to her old committees when the tension has reduced.
“We generally are in small spaces with many staff members, and the committee work requires close relationships with those staff members,” Dharap said. “So there are practical, logistical issues… with the current tension between district administrators and teachers and Ms. Chiu.”
Dharap said Chiu and Reynolds are both on the Early Childhood Programs Committee and neither have been attending meetings.
It’s been an eventful opening for the new school board, starting with a 3-2 vote to eliminate Honors Biology on Jan. 21.
Two days later, the board had a five-hour meeting to require freshman to take Ethnic Studies starting in the fall on another 3-2 vote.
Dharap and Segal were aligned on both issues with Chiu on the losing side. Kamhi was the swing vote on Honors Biology, and Salcman was the swing vote on Ethnic Studies.
Reynolds was subject to racist comments as a result. She wasn’t at tonight’s meeting, and Dharap said he’s worried about retaining district employees.
Chiu also said tonight that she was willing to accept committee reassignments, but she was critical of the resolution and said she has felt silenced. The board voted 4-1, with Chiu against, to reassign her from her current committees.
I am deeply troubled by Dharap‘s statements on the procedures. It seemed to me that Rowena had initially motioned to withdraw the proposal to submit the resolution, which he interpreted to be a motion to voluntarily reassign herself to different committees without being “ordered” to apologize. It was clear to everybody that Rowena was basically requesting to withdraw the proposed resolution. But he somehow manipulated her into agreeing to reassign herself to different committees, which was effectively the most powerful goal of the originally proposed resolution. You can see him trying not to smile as he suggested this to Chiu. The other members seemed confused about exactly what they were voting on.
Dharap also stated that it was factually incorrect that Reynolds had suggested that Asians cannot be “unsafe” or oppressed because her statement came 50 minutes after Chiu had said she felt “unsafe”, and that Reynolds was responding solely to a student representative’s vaguely worded question about what would make some students feel unsafe, and that the question did not have anything to do with Asian Americans.
We all watched the last meeting on YouTube in its entirety. The student never said her question was not about Asian Americans. We also saw that when Reynolds talked about the difference between unsafe and uncomfortable, that she was looking directly at Chiu.
Overall, I was surprised by how manipulative Dharap was, and how he misrepresented the facts to further condemn Chiu. If anyone is interested in recalling him, please respond below.
Fully support in recalling the Trustee Dharap! I watched the entire meeting last night and what he said during the discussion of the resolution is completely logically contradicted himself.
– He claimed the resolution to be impact-oriented, ignoring Chiu’s intention. But when talking about Reynold’s controversial talk he argued that Raynold’s intention is not like what we interpreted. Now you talk about intention ha? What about the impact that her talk deeply hurts our feeling as Asian Americans??
– He, for so many times, emphasized that his job is to protect the educators and keep them away from the conflict that make they feel unsafe. But what if the conflict is caused by their offending talk to the community? According to Gemini, “School board members, also known as trustees, are responsible for governing public schools. They are elected public officials who serve to advocate for students and the community.” Apparently he does the opposite and hence a malfeasance.
For the best of our community, recall Dharap immediately!
Yes, support recall!
Fully support in recalling Dharap!
I agree with this — he would not take her motion or, even worse, pretended not to understand it, and then finagled his way into getting what he could. Completely slimy. Also, he’s not the board president!! Why is he running the show? Luckily Rowena kept pushing to withdraw, otherwise I don’t even think he would have suggested the committee reassignment idea. And agree, the committee assignments were to kneecap Rowena’s influence — we all know that the committees are where the real work gets done. Hopefully they reassign committees every year.
Agree. It was extremely inappropriate and against procedural rules for him to give a speech at the end, again condemning Chiu, when he already got extra air time than the other board members, and is not the president. Moreover, nothing in the bylaws says that a member cannot move for a motion to withdraw a proposal for a resolution. He made up that rule with out citing any evidence in the bylaws. That was another arbitrary abuse of power, based on no procedural evidence.
Yes recall
Chiu reeled off a litany of mea culpas last night, but for one (unless I missed it).
She never specifically explained or apologized for choosing to post on the site, Asians Against Wokeness. The title makes it obvious that racists will use it, so why did she?
It’s still not clear she has the good judgment needed to serve on our school board.
No, the title does not make clear there are racists that use Asians against Wokeness. The woke are the racists. That site is just exposing the racism done by woke people.
The inmates are running the asylum. So disappointed with Nicole Chiu-Wang.
This was a farce and Segal and Dharap should be recalled based on their actions around this and the adoption of the toxic ethnic studies curriculum. The teacher’s union role and that of the CSEA union should also be examined.
Chiu did nothing wrong and she need not apologize; her doing so is actually a slap in the face to those supporting equal treatment and first amendment rights. Ms. Reynolds’ remarks invalidated Ms. Chiu’s feelings and experience. To be clear, folks other than one racial group can feel unsafe, except under a false critical race theory/intersectionality construct that apparently some espouse. Apparently no one is allowed to disagree with a staff member of a certain group.
The ethnic studies curriculum PAUSD adopted is discriminatory, steeped in CRT, derived from Marxism, and based on envy, hate, and the false marxist oppressor/oppressed construct. There are other non toxic ethnic studies curriculums. All who voted to adopt this should be ashamed.
Sometimes the mob wins, sometimes the mob loses. The question is, why are they forming into a mob in the first place? Is disagreeing with Palo Alto Groupthink really that egregious of a stance?
Rowena is absolutely fabulous. We support her
#SupportRowena #StrongerTogether
Rowena said she was feeling unsafe – and spoke about it. The board trivialized what she was feeling. Instead they humiliated her and coerced her to apologize. The board has gone woke! Silencing an honest and upstanding board member for speaking up against Ethnic Studies is not acceptable to the community. This board needs to get its act together and work for the community, not against it – otherwise they will face the wrath of the community.
Rowena , thank you ! The way you conducted yourself with such courage is truly inspiring and makes you a great role model for all of us! Thank you again for standing up and speaking for our community !
Rowena did a great job supporting herself as a great courageous leader and supporting the community. We love her and will always stand by her!
Reynolds needs to be held accountable for her racist comment toward Rowena and apologize to the entire Asian community. Why is she hiding?
Watching that meeting was honestly frustrating. The students who spoke were so brave and thoughtful, but President Segal and Board Member Dharap completely ignored them. Instead of actually listening, they pushed a so-called “resolution to restore trust” that was obviously a political attack on Rowena Chiu – who made a mistake and apologized over and over. It was upsetting to see leaders act this way—what kind of example does that send to students? Board Member Dharap’s speech at the end made it clear that this wasn’t about moving forward, it was about blaming and shaming.
On the bright side, Board Members Kamhi and Salcman showed real integrity by standing up for what’s right. Hopefully, they represent the future of this board.
What an incredible show of support for Rowena last night! Grandparents, parents, and students turned out in huge numbers, standing in the cold, speaking powerfully, and holding signs for Rowena Chiu. The students’ speeches were especially inspiring—thoughtful, articulate, and fearless. Rowena herself was phenomenal, delivering a speech so compelling that even her opponents were silent. Rowena is the true leader of this board!
Rowena Chiu faced intense pressure, but she stood her ground with courage and grace. Despite the board’s attempts to sideline her, she spoke with clarity, strength, and conviction. The PAUSD board’s behavior was shameful, and the community saw right through it. Huge respect to the parents and students who showed up to support Rowena! PAUSD should focus on educational excellence, not political games. We need leaders like Rowena who put students first!
Bravo to Board Members Chiu, Kamhi and Salczman for standing up against the original resolution last night. And a special thank you to Ms. Chiu for her leadership.She single-handedly showed the Board President and Vice President how to lead in spite of all the animosity toward her.
Now that the resolution is behind us, we need to move away from this despicable cancel culture and on to working together.
The PAUSD board should be ashamed—they wasted time and resources on political retaliation, instead of addressing real issues like curriculum quality and financial accountability. Last night’s meeting exposed the deep problems within the board, from intimidation tactics to blatant bias. But Rowena Chiu didn’t back down. She stayed calm, articulate, and focused on what matters—our kids’ education. The community stands with Rowena!
I like this comment.
It was sad that Segal and Dharap missed an opportunity to follow the inclusiveness they so preach by working with Ms. Chiu instead of reassigning her role despite Ms.Chiu’s apology and deleting her tweet. This is one way to silence the opposing voice that does not go with the legacy group that want their way no matter what. A representative who received 19000 votes was pushed to accept the outcome of this group of cancel culture that does not align with them. Hopefully the board will have diversity in the points of views, not just by the color of the skin.
With Dharap you expect a little crazy. But Segal should know better.
Dharap is obviously working for the Daubers, no doubt about it. Dharap’s ego is huge and he is very arrogant, has to be the smartest guy in the room.
Dharap is hard to watch and he is so manipulative. Segal is obviously in over her head.
Hopefully we can all move on now and get stuff done for the kids!
One thing that has really stood out is how manipulative Dharap is and how he is a puppet of the Daubers!
I agree with recalling Shounak Dharap. Even though he doesn’t have more than 2 years left in his term, his removal would send a symbolic message that the majority of Palo Altans don’t approve of how Rowena was treated by the staff or the board. Dharap’s ouster would hopefully lead to other positive changes, such as Don Austin’s exit, and a message to Dauber that he is no longer in charge. Let’s get that recall done!
Fully support Rowena. You are so strong and so brave. On the contrary, the one oppressed you dare not to show up to the meeting.
We need someone who is capable and truly cares for the children. We support Rowena!
Support recall of Dharap and Segal.
Shana and Dharap need to be recalled.
Shaunak only wants to rise in his political journey; he does not care about students, teachers or parents.
Shana has an inferiority complex against Rowena; obviously Rowena has more supporters! Shana was bullied by jdb and Shaunak the last two years – I would expect her to have more dignity, but look at her go after Rowena!
Shana and Dharap need to be recalled.
Shaunak only wants to rise in his political journey; he does not care about students, teachers or parents.
Shana has an inferiority complex against Rowena; obviously Rowena has more supporters! Shana was bullied by jdb and Shaunak the last two years – I would expect her to have more dignity, but look at her go after Rowena!
It should not be lost on anyone that the treatment of Chiu by Dharap and Segal (and their ilk) was a manifestation of the worst aspects of the oppressor-oppressed narrative that is often peddled in the “liberated” ethnic studies courses that were the very backdrop of this whole debacle.
Dharap et al made the decision that Chiu’s supposed “abuse of power” warranted a public shaming in the name of protecting someone holding a “higher” rank in the olympics of the oppressed — someone who is allowed to feel “unsafe,” as opposed to Chiu who is only allowed to feel “uncomfortable.”
Make no mistake, historical injustices and oppression are real, but addressing those realities by sowing divisiveness in the manner of Dharap et al (whilst professing to promote inclusiveness) is a road to nowhere.
Further, the proposed resolution from Dharap and Segal managed to be patronizing and parochial and absurd all at the same time. Dharap claimed the anti-Chiu resolution, drafted against a backdrop of calls for her resignation, was only meant to have “impact” and lacked any “intent.” Because a resolution never lacks intent, claiming otherwise is absurd. Insofar as the resolution framed committee re-assignments as being for the PROTECTION and BENEFIT of CHIU, that was both patronizing and parochial — Chiu appears more than capable of speaking up when she seeks protection and/or benefits for herself, she does not need Dharap and Segal to do it for her.
Finally, although there is much more to say, it is worth noting that throughout the night Dharap and Segal also exhibited the height of hypocrisy regarding the “abuse of power” that they supposedly abohore. Segal allowed anti-Chiu sentiment to be expressed during more than one agenda item, but when pro-Chiu sentiment sought to be expressed on the same agenda item, Segal cut off the latter. Also, as noted above Dharap manipulated parliamentary procedures to prevent Chiu from getting a clear up/down vote on the resolution against her, Dharap, all whilst feigning an intend to understand her, thus effectively railroading the board into voting on a procedural motion to “voluntarily” re-assign Chiu’s committees and then effectively tabling the resolution against Chiu. And ultimately, AFTER the matter was finally, seemingly put to rest, both Dharap and Segal, like children who must get in the last word, inappropriately and effectively grand-standed as to how they were indeed right, and Chiu was wrong.
Let’s be clear:
Chiu may have made a momentary and ill-advised repost with an unexpected, but not unforeseeable adverse impact on an PAUSD employee.
But Dharap and Segal waged a long-timed and calculated campaign with an expected and foreseeable adverse impact on a PAUSD board member.
I will take the former over the latter every day and twice on Sunday.
Let’s keep Chiu and recall (oust) Dharap and Segal.
Segal and Dharap are puppets of the Daubers. Recall Segal and Dharap!
This whole thing was a FARCE and everyone’s watching. Rowena is great and a thoughtful person who doesn’t deserve this kind of shabby treatment. Nor should she have to run around apologizing to people who were bullying her to begin with. This Dharap need to be removed.
Rowena showed so much maturity and professionalism while Shana and Dharap showed their true colors in their comments even though they started with impact story to hide their manipulation in the beginning. Support recalling Shana and Shana.
Where was Danae Reynolds, the administrator who two weeks ago lectured Chiu about what she was supposed to feel? Was she under the weather? Taking a self-imposed leave? Or on a suspension? Since she’s an administrator of something, nobody is going to miss her, or notice that she is gone. The schools operate fine without all those bureaucrats at 25 Churchill. But it is curious that she vanished.
Her picture was scrubbed from the PAUSD website.
Course material students saved is starting to make the rounds and it’s shocking how much CRT and 1619 Project stuff is in there. And there’s a lot of Marxist Oppressor/Oppressed thinking in there too. When parents start seeing that, they’re going to want Reynolds to explain how this isn’t indoctrination. So she’s probably quit and taking her DEI lectures to another unsuspecting town.
Probably because she was aware that what she said could be construed as racist to certain people, and yet HAS NOT APOLOGIZED. Whereas, Rowena’s political enemies were foaming at the mouth trying to get her to resign in shame with this coordinated attack, and yet she had the braveness and integrity to actually show up, apologize, and roll up her sleeves to get back to work.
PAUSD is dying right in front of us. After this fiasco so they think we’ll ever approve a parcel tax or bond measure? Not a chance. I wish Rowena well but this is a sinking ship. Bad schools will lead to lower home values. It will be a death spiral.
I just went back to the to the Jan23 meeting.
At around the 4:40 mark, the student rep asked a very clear question of the Board:
–If tonight we approve the Ethnic Studies curriculum as is, can the curriculum be revised (based on community feedback, etc)?
Regarding that question about a curriculum just disclosed ~24 hours earlier, Board Member Dharap gave a non-responsive answer to the effect of:
–We have lots of Board policies and practices, and the state may mandate changes.
Dharap then said
–Let’s just vote.
If there is any doubt that Dharap (and Segal) are committed to ram-rodding the Staff’s Ethnic Studies curriculum through WITHOUT sufficient transparency and community feedback, etc., this exchange should remove any such doubt.
I wish people would address the elephant in the room. Those opposed to the ethnic studies course are comprised of Jewish and Asian parents, and the dynamic has evolved into a binary conflict between those parents and those who would like to foster a better understanding of the challenges that marginalized groups have faced, including in our community. I presume the Jewish parents are concerned that the curriculum will evolve to include the situation that is occurring in Gaza, which some would say equates to genocide. I also assume that Asian parents may be concerned that a required Ethic Studies course may prevent enrollment of their children in an honors or STEM course that may be more highly regarded by universities when college applications are submitted. My response is that yes, your concerns are valid. However, to my Jewish community members, please know that criticism directed at the actions of Israel are not antisemitic , and the community is able to distinguish between the rights and interests of Jewish people and the atrocities committed by Israel. For the Asian parents, I would say that freshman year courses are unlikely to significantly impact college applications, and I think our community on the whole would benefit from an Ethnic Studies course that also includes discrimination directed at marginalized Asian people. I hope we can put this all behind us and move forward as a community. This division is unsettling, and the focus on Rowena Chiu is just a distraction at this point.