UPDATE, 2:47 p.m. — The Palo Alto Schools Management Association, a union that represents principals and other administrators in the district, is calling for Chiu to resign for criticizing one of its members.
“By posting and commenting on an incendiary social media post filled with racially charged rhetoric and personal attacks against a PAUSD initiative and staff, Ms. Chiu has violated the ethical obligations of her position and betrayed the trust of the community she was elected to serve,” the letter said. “Her actions reflect a divisive, harmful, and regressive mindset that threatens the very foundation of inclusivity and educational equity that PAUSD upholds.”
ORIGINAL, 10:14 a.m. — Fourteen former Palo Alto school board members have signed a letter condemning new school board member Rowena Chiu for reposting an online message that was critical of a school district administrator in connection with the Ethnic Studies debate.
The letter was signed by Alan Davis, Diane Reklis, Julie Jerome, Susie Richardson, Amado Padilla, Cathy Kroymann, Gail Price, Dana Tom, Barbara Sih Klausner, Terry Godfrey, Ken Dauber, Jennifer DiBrienza, Todd Collins and Jesse Ladomirak.
Chiu reposted a message from Asians Against Wokeness. The message said Chiu announced during the school board’s Jan. 23 meeting on Ethnic Studies that she didn’t feel “safe” due to “bullying by other woke school board members.”
The message that Chiu reposted claims that about an hour later, a district administrator, Danae Reynolds, “lectures (Chiu) about how the word ‘unsafe’ is essentially inappropriate for people of Asian background because Asians are not truly oppressed.”
Because of the message, the employee was “harassed by numerous racist comments on the Asians Against Wokeness post Chiu reposted,” according to a news release circulated by former board member Ken Dauber.
“Before Chiu made her repost, the thread already included many racist and bullying comments directed at the staff member, which Chiu’s post rebroadcasted,” the news release said.
Dauber’s news release said that Chiu appears to have deleted her repost from her own timeline sometime on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
The video of the meeting, at 3:51:40, shows Reynolds responding to Chiu’s comment about feeling unsafe and, in directly, concerns by Asians about their feelings of oppression being downplayed.
“I worry about the word safe as a person who has to worry about my husband driving and coming home, right, if he gets pulled over. And the word safety is something we have to be a little bit, we have to be aware of what that means,” Reynolds said, according to a video of the meeting. “Now being uncomfortable, absolutely, I feel uncomfortable sitting up here maybe that I worry about my husband but it’s the truth. We can feel uncomfortable. That’s part of growing and learning and being a human being but also being apart of this community.”
“Our teachers will often feel uncomfortable when a student says something in their classroom, in a math classroom, a student may (say) something to the one black student in the class or the one Pacific Islander student in the class about ‘Why are you in here?’ That happens in some of our math classes and that teacher might feel uncomfortable, and that teacher has to address it,” Reynolds said. “Because if the teacher doesn’t address it, the teacher is complicit, right?”
“So I know that we may have members of our community who may be worried about the terms oppressor or oppressed,” said Reynolds. “I completely understand that. But as a person who comes from the community that was oppressed and continues to be oppressed, I have to live with that every day. And our students of color live with that every day.”
The Post has been unable to reach Chiu for her side of the controversy.
The board voted 3-2 to keep Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement. Board members Shounak Dharap, Shauna Segal and Josh Salcman voted for the class. Chiu and Alison Kamhi voted against it.
This is hilarious coming from Dauber. How many times did his wife bully and villainize people in the community including school employees? Yet he never once said a word about her.
I support Rowena and feel this is a smear campaign. Rowena is standing up for Asian families. Too bad Ken Dauber doesn’t like that. Change is needed in PAUSD. It’s good that Dauber is gone, but Rowena needs to be able to speak at board meetings without having to worry about attacks. The former school board members who signed Dauber’s letter should feel ashamed. They have tainted their reputations.
I want to get all the names of people that signed to ask her to resign, what a group of harassers that threatens Asian in every way.
I don’t understand something. The employees work for the school board, right? Since when do the employees get the right to tell off their bosses as (name removed) did at this board meeting? This is backward. Austin has lost control of his staff.
It’s her first ammendment right to post whatever she wants. I’m proud that she’s standing up for, and hearing parents voices in PAUSD. She’s coming at it with logic and not emotion. Thank you Rowena!!!
The most liberal people are racists. Asians can’t say they or their ancestors were oppressed? Really? Ken, thanks for revealing yourself.
I support Rowena and understand why she said she “has not felt very safe.” At the school district meeting on the evening of January 23, 2025, only students who supported keeping Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement were allowed to speak, while opposing parents were left waiting outside and couldn’t get in. By around 8:30PM, there was hope that the decision would be overturned with a 3-2 vote, but then came endless delays and excessive questioning, ultimately leading to a reversal. The entire meeting felt like a drawn-out, bureaucratic process. Rowena spoke boldly and stood her ground until the very end, advocating for what was right. It was no easy feat.
Another obvious attempt to silence Asian voices. And a coordinated effort as well. Is it no wonder Trump won in a landslide? The district should be ashamed at this blatant political play.
The fact that Rowena Chiu got attached by those PAUSD educators proved how much an Asian is oppressed in PASUD’s own “inclusive” policy!
Asians are probably the most oppressed group by the peninsula liberals. Ken and his “wife” Michele don’t want anyone to succeed by hard work and believing in family. Let’s drop them to the lowest common denominator so they will stay in line and do what “we” say. Individual thought is not allowed.
Rowena needs to stay off social media – but asking her to resign over this is laughable. The school board has bigger things to worry about than this nonsense. Grow up!
The audacity of a school administrator to tell a board member if she can feel oppressed or not! There’s something seriously wrong with this school board and the Don Austin administration. Time to take out the broom and sweep these racists out!
Rowenda shouldn’t resign. She’s was exercising her right to free speech. The 14 former school board members should apologize for trying to censor her. I guess they think that the Asian lady on the school board is supposed to stay silent and bow down to the racists. This black administrator should resign for making such a racist comment.
In light of the recent discussions surrounding Board Member Rowena Chiu, it is important to take a step back and reaffirm our collective commitment to respectful dialogue and the principles of free speech. While we recognize the concerns expressed in the recent letter, we must also ensure that all voices—including those of our elected officials—are heard and respected.
Board members, like all members of our community, are human beings. They, too, have the right to express their thoughts, engage in discussions, and participate in public discourse. While accountability is essential in public service, so is fairness. Ms. Chiu, as an elected official, retains the right to share her perspective publicly—just as any citizen, including national leaders, does. Her participation in discussions should not be viewed as an endorsement of divisiveness but rather as an exercise of her right to engage with the community she serves.
Calls for resignation based solely on social media interactions set a dangerous precedent. Democracy thrives on the exchange of diverse viewpoints, and condemning a board member for engaging in public dialogue—without due process or clear evidence of misconduct—risks silencing important perspectives. It is crucial that we maintain a balanced and measured approach, allowing for differences of opinion while continuing to uphold PAUSD’s values of inclusivity and professionalism.
We urge all community members to approach this situation with level-headedness and fairness. Constructive criticism is essential, but so is ensuring that discussions remain open, respectful, and free from undue pressure. Let us strive to create an environment where everyone—students, educators, parents, and board members alike—feels safe expressing their viewpoints without fear of unjust reprisal.
Now is the time for thoughtful dialogue, not division. Let’s come together as a community to ensure that all perspectives are heard and that we uphold the fundamental principles of fairness, respect, and free speech.
The post that Rowena reposted is absolutely accurate except for the fact that it’s off by a minute or so. This irritating administrator, who finishes every other sentence with “right?”, diminishes Rowena’s concerns in about one sentence and then goes into this rant about how her concerns are much more important. So the post in question is spot on. Watch it for yourself, but it starts at 3:51.40.
It’s important to note that Rowena felt unsafe because high school students were acting as high school students do – they booed when they heard comments they disagreed with or felt were untrue, and snapped when they heard comments that aligned with their experience at PAUSD and hopes for it to improve by introducing curriculum that reflects their cultures. These students are students of color who are *literally* unsafe at PAUSD schools and who have dealt and still deal with unsafe treatment, curriculum, and conversations toward and about them. They are 15-18 years old. They are kids. It is appropriate for the director of secondary curriculum – in a conversation that is largely about language (inclusive vs. liberated, oppressor vs. oppressed) – to discuss the connotation of a word. It is appropriate and necessary to stand up for students and teachers who have been thrown into a firestorm of bad faith arguments and untruths. Reynolds did not say that Asian people do not have a right to feel unsafe. She instead, respectfully, challenged her word choice in order to make a larger point about discomfort vs. danger in the context of the argument at hand. It is dangerous to retweet and amplify a racist account. I’m not sure if you can still see the comments that were underneath the post she amplified, but I haven’t seen something so blatantly racist in a very long time. It is dangerous to correlate an attempted sexual assault with having your ideas and position challenged in a public forum, which is what it is literally meant for. It is dangerous to post the image and personal information of a Black woman out to an audience of particularly emboldened racists who see a one semester 9th grade history class as a threat to their way of life and their children’s opportunity to succeed. This battle over the class requires you as a board member to be especially thoughtful and careful with your use of language in public. Everyone commenting should watch the full video before believing clickbait and commenters.
Rowena we love you and we support you! Thank you for being the voice of the community and standing strong with courage and grace! You were elected precisely because the majority in our community had enough of the divisive, biased, and self serving leadership and administration. That group just proved again that they have no rock bottom.
For those that need context. The school board special meeting was chaotic and irregular and hostile to those that opposed or even questioned the agenda. Many felt unsafe. There were security guard in the room and many selectively could not speak or even get in. Rowena expressed twice that she does not feel safe in the face of the hostility and also expressed that families feel unsafe with making a class with undisclosed curriculum a requirement.
The school administrator lecture also “downgraded” feelings of *others* to “uncomfortable”, and seemed to believe this is a desirable outcome.
Now, this administrator is the “Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction” at PAUSD. This is a person in direct charge of TK-12 minors! This is very unsettling.
It had been a full week and no apology or explanation from the administrator or the Superintendent clarifying that this statement does not reflect PAUSD values. Or perhaps it does?
Can a district that views mental health as a zero sum game (it is not!) and minimizes feelings of unsafely support its students? How can parents trust this district when sending their children to school?
I support Rowena.
Here’s actual text. This article left out the juice / outrageous part about “Mercedes” from the Reynolds.
Rowena Chiu: “I want to say personally I have not felt very safe in this room… I am attempting to maintain an open mindset, but the feedback that I’ve heard from the community so far has made me feel very unsafe. I have felt very unsafe in this meeting. So I will attempt to be constructive and ask questions with an open mindset. [Time Stamp: 3:00:00]”
In response to Rowena Chiu, the district’s “Executive Director of Curriculum & Instruction” Danaé Reynolds:
“I know that we have members in our community who may be worried about the terms oppressor or oppressed. I completely understand that. But as a person who comes from a community that has and continues to be oppressed, I have to live with that every day. And our students of color in our district live with that every day. And the students who may not have that experience – now I’m not saying that I’m a victim. Believe me, I am not a victim. I am not saying that. Y’all know Ms. Reynolds. I also know that I can be Ms. Reynolds in Palo Alto here, but I can also be the black woman driving her Mercedes someplace else and also get pulled over and not come home to my husband. That is living an oppressed experience, right? And it’s okay to say that in a classroom because our kids are experiencing it every day. They’re experiencing it every day. So yes the language can be triggering for people. [Time Stamp: 3:51:30]”
a school district cannot selectively allow some parents and students to attend a public school board meeting while preventing others from attending, as this would violate Open Meeting Laws (Sunshine Laws) and First Amendment rights.
1. Public Meetings Must Be Open to All – If the meeting is a regular or special public school board meeting, all members of the public (including parents) must have equal access.
2. Viewpoint Discrimination Is Illegal – A school board cannot exclude certain parents based on their opinions, criticisms, or advocacy.
3. Space Limitations Must Be Neutral – If a meeting room is full due to capacity limits, restrictions must be applied equally (e.g., first-come, first-served or livestream alternatives).
All the above violation has happened in the last week’s meeting. Some parents was stopped by security while seeing others going in even they came after then.
Rowena is all the time being polite and patience. She has been asking over and over she need the transparency of the Ethical Study course. But the district did not disclose enough information, used one year old brainstorm files. Leaving all the newly elected board members in wonder. The teacher taking the issue personally and getting emotional. To be honest, a good social study should have a clear mind and be neutral to guide the students in critical thinking. I clearly didn’t see that happening base on the behavior of the school district. On what ground did the union want her to resign? Rowena didn’t do anything wrong. The action and those people participate on the action of asking her to resign is unbelivable nasty.