BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Students have accused Mountain View High School administrators of undermining their journalism program amid an ongoing lawsuit.
The advisor is only interested in keeping her job, and new students aren’t being trained in journalism basics, attorney Jean-Paul Jassy said in an Oct. 19 letter to the Mountain View Los Altos High School District.
“Together, these changes have left students and parents confused and unsupported,” Jassy said in his letter to the school board.
Journalism advisor Tammy Gilmore pushed back on Jassy’s letter, which claimed that she told students she “doesn’t want to be there” and is just “collateral” for administrators because they need someone to teach the course. Gilmore said Jassy is making false accusations in an attempt to intimidate her as a Black female teacher.
“These attacks have taken a significant personal toll on me and hinder my efforts to ensure underrepresented Black students and educators are treated equitably and not portrayed as inferior,” Gilmore said in an email yesterday.
Trial coming up
Jassy’s letter was sent ahead of a trial in his lawsuit against the district and Principal Kip Glazer for allegedly censoring an article about sexual harassment in spring 2023.
Glazer allegedly removed advisor Carla Gomez in retaliation for the article getting published. Gomez was replaced by drama teacher Zachary Morris, and Morris was replaced by Gilmore. Introduction to Journalism was canceled and replaced with a Digital Communications class.
Jassy said students don’t feel like they’re being taught journalism by a teacher.
Students teaching
“It is now the older students themselves who are left to teach the younger journalism students the foundational journalism skills necessary to produce high-quality articles for The Oracle,” he said, referring to the student newspaper.
Students are reviewing curricula and getting support from advisors from other schools, Jassy said. He claimed the class doesn’t have a textbook, and students were given a midterm exam that may have been created with Al. But Gilmore said she delivers curriculum through a combination of in-person teaching, online resources, assessments and a textbook called “Journalism: Publishing Across Media.”
Article dispute
One area of dispute between Gilmore and the students was an article written last year about Black cultural appropriation.
Jassy said Gilmore asked a student who wasn’t a member of The Oracle to review the article, and then made changes that were inconsistent with the newspaper’s policy based on that student’s feedback.
Gilmore said students attempted to portray two Black women negatively “through fabricated quotes and derogatory caricatures of colloquial speech.
Gilmore said that students persisted, even after she provided feedback as the only Black person in the room. She said she’s faced questioning from students that past advisors didn’t.
“Jean-Paul Jassy is attempting to distract from the real issue: the disparity in how Black educators and students are depicted in the student newspaper by non-Black students,” Gilmore said.
“This letter is the result of advisor feedback on students choosing to publish a biased, derogatory narrative regarding a Black educator – even though there are only six of us at the school, including myself – without any standard of journalistic objectivity.”
Under attack
Gilmore said students fabricated direct quotes that, upon fact-checking, did not align with interview transcripts.
“Instead of receiving support for upholding journalistic fidelity, I have come under attack,” she said.
Jassy said Gilmore requested last-minute changes to The Oracle, leaving students scrambling to reformat so they can print the paper on time.
“Students do not expect her to fight for them if they wish to publish an article critical of MVHS,” Jassy said in his letter to the board.
Gilmore said she will file a formal complaint with the State Bar Association, as Jassy didn’t verify the accuracy of his statements before sending his letter to the board.
Better elsewhere
Jassy said The Oracle’s situation stands in stark contrast to the thriving journalism program at Los Altos High School, which is in the same school district.
“We believe this is all part of a shameful and vindictive effort to undermine The Oracle at the expense of dedicated and hard-working students as an ill-conceived punishment for their predecessors temerity and courage to challenge the administration’s behavior,” Jassy said.
Jassy is representing Gomez and former student reporters Hanna Olson and Hayes Duenow in their lawsuit against the district and Glazer.
Glazer allegedly visited the class multiple times to discourage students from publishing an article on sexual harassment, and they ended up changing 11 pieces of information. Glazer said she was worried about one of the accused students attempting suicide.
“I do not regret my actions in trying to educate, lead and guide the student journalists … I wanted them to move forward with their eyes wide open,” Glazer said in a court statement.
Enrollment down
Student reporter Renuka Mungee said changes to the journalism program have reduced enrollment in the class from 39 to 25 students.
When Mungee became editor-in-chief as a senior, she said she felt like she had to consider whether Glazer would negatively receive every story.
“I was constantly aware that the relationship between The Oracle and the administration had become strained. This hampered my ability to focus on stories that deserve to be reported to our community,” Mun-gee said in a court declaration on Sept. 23. Gilmore declined to comment on the lawsuit.
“This is not my fight; I am simply doing the job I was hired to do,” she said.
A trial is scheduled on Nov. 23.
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