BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Mountain View High School’s principal is defending her push to have a student newspaper change an article about sexual harassment.
“I do not regret my actions in trying to educate, lead and guide the student journalists,” Principal Kip Glazer said in a court statement.
Glazer is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by former advisor Carla Gomez and former students Hanna Olson and Hayes Duenow, who said Glazer violated their First Amendment rights by censoring the article and reassigning Gomez.
Glazer filed a 19-page statement on July 30 that details her involvement and thinking before and after the article was published.
Glazer said parents contacted her and Assistant Principal Jonathan Robell on March 24, 2023, to complain about the article accusing their son of sexual harassment. The parents were terrified that their son would attempt suicide again if the article was published, Glazer said.
Confrontation with assistant principal
Robell said he called Gomez that day, but she wouldn’t give him any information about the article. So Robell asked Gomez to relay his concerns to the class “to help them see the full picture before publishing a one-sided article.”
But Gomez was confrontational and said the students had the right to publish whatever they wanted without any input from the administration, according to Robell.
“To me, Ms. Gomez’s response was not that of an educator,” Robell said in a court statement.
Glazer visited the class on March 26, 2023, and asked to get an advanced copy of the newspaper, called the Oracle.
Glazer ‘shocked’ by article
Glazer said she was “shocked” to read the article accuse multiple students of serious crimes, including harassment, stalking and attempted rape.
“Even more concerning was that each of the accused students were easily identifiable,” she said.
Glazer said the article was inaccurate and accused a teacher of facilitating a culture of sexual harassment, but the teacher was never interviewed.
Glazer said she met with Gomez and the students again on March 27, 2023, and told them the article could have “disastrous consequences.”
“I wanted them to move forward with their eyes wide open,” Glazer said in her court statement.
Glazer said she is responsible for the health and safety of all students, including the accused.
“I believe that I acted appropriately in all respects,” she said.
The Oracle published the article on March 30, 2023. The article detailed several instances of male students sending inappropriate and unwanted messages to other students, including unsolicited nude photos.
“‘I just felt like nobody cared’: Students open up about their experiences with sexual harassment,” the headline said.
Student journalists interviewed experts to talk about the impact of sexual harassment, and Glazer commented on how the school responds.
Glazer said the accused’s parents were incredibly upset about the article and said she would be responsible if something happened to their son.
Drama teacher takes over newspaper
Glazer told the journalism class on April 28, 2023, that drama teacher Zachary Pancho Morris would replace Gomez for the next school year because Gomez didn’t have the right credential. Glazer reassigned Gomez to teach English and combined journalism with a yearbook class.
The changes caught the eye of nearby journalism programs and the Student Press Law Center. Palo Alto High School journalism advisor Paul Kandell said Glazer appeared to be trying to control and kill Mountain View’s program.
“Her behavior during the production of this article and the timing of this reassignment sends a clear and dangerous message to student journalists,” Kandell told the school board on May 28, 2023.
Retaliation alleged
Gomez, Olson and Duenow sued Glazer and the school district on Feb. 22, 2024, with two key claims: Glazer and the district censored the article, and Glazer and the district retaliated against Gomez by removing her as advisor.
The students gave 11 examples of information they removed from the article after meeting with Glazer. She allegedly pressured them to take out sexually explicit messages sent by students and replace them with vague descriptions.
Glazer also asked students to take out references to the school failing to hold sexual harassers accountable, the suit said.
“Glazer said words to the effect that students should write about MVHS in a ‘positive light’ … The implication the students drew was that the Oracle should avoid upsetting people,” the suit said.
Gomez, Olson and Duenow want the district to reinstate Gomez, allow the original article to be published and guarantee that future articles won’t be censored.
Principal could be held responsible
Judge Evette Pennypacker ruled in May 2024 that Glazer could be sued for allegedly censoring the article.
Pennypacker cited a first-in-the-nation law passed by the California Legislature in 1971 to protect student’s free expression on school campuses, including in official school publications.
Students have the right to free expression in school newspapers except when it’s “obscene, libelous, or slanderous,” or if the article would incite students to break the law or substantially disrupt the orderly operations of the school, the law saiid.
Glazer said she let the students decide
Glazer has denied censoring the article. She said she didn’t demand any changes or tell students they would suffer consequences for publishing the article.
“I believed there were significant risks involved in publishing the article as written, but I understood that the decision was up to the students,” Glazer said in her court statement.
Glazer said she reassigned Gomez and consolidated the journalism class because she was trying to save money and strengthen the school’s Career and Technical Education, or CTE.
She said the Oracle has focused on print and it should shift into more of a digital operation.
Glazer and the district will have a hearing on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit with Judge Eunice Lee on Oct. 20.
The case is scheduled for a trial on Nov. 23.
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