BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Student journalists and their former advisor at Mountain View High School are far apart in settlement talks with a principal who allegedly censored an article about sexual harassment among students.
Student journalists Hanna Olson and Hayes Duenow and former advisor Carla Gomez initially offered to settle their lawsuit for just over $1 million, court records show.
They’re suing Principal Kip Glazer and the Mountain View Los Altos High School District for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights and then reassigning Gomez after the article was published in March 2023.
The district has offered to settle for $150,000, according to an update filed on Tuesday.
In response, the student journalists and Gomez asked for the district to:
- change its policies on student speech and publications;
- allow them to send an uncensored draft of the article to the current editors of the student newspaper;
- schedule a school-wide assembly with an expert on student-on-student sexual harassment;
- reinstate Gomez as advisor and pay her $125,000, or $400,000 if she’s not reinstated;
- continue litigating over attorney’s fees.
District says no
Attorney Eric Bengston declined the offer on the district’s behalf. He said the draft of the article doesn’t comply with journalistic ethics, and Olson, Deunow and Gomez shouldn’t have approval over an assembly that is unrelated to the lawsuit’s claims.
Bengston said Gomez isn’t qualified to be advisor, and her actual damages are $17,436 – the stipend she would have received if she remained as advisor for two more years.
Both sides will discuss a settlement in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Wednesday. Superintendent Eric Volta will attend for the district. Judge Eunice Lee sided with the student reporters and Gomez in a ruling on Oct. 20, allowing the case to go to trial on Nov. 23.
The students gave 11 examples of information they changed in the article after meeting with Glazer. Glazer allegedly pressured them to take out sexually explicit messages and references to the school failing to hold sexual harassers accountable.
In response, Glazer said parents complained about the article accusing their son of sexual harassment. They were scared that their son would attempt suicide if the article was pub-lished, Glazer said.
Glazer said she met with students to tell them the article could have “disastrous consequences.”
“I do not regret my actions in trying to educate, lead and guide the student journalists,” she said in a court decla-ration.
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.
Zachary Morris, the drama teacher who replaced Gomez, said he was surprised when Glazer offered him the advisor position. He didn’t ask for the job and never worked in journalism before.
Morris said Glazer told him to make The Oracle “less hard-hitting, more hip.”
“It’s the 21st century. We don’t need newspapers anymore,” Glazer said, according to Morris.
When student Renuka 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,” Mungee said in a court declaration on Sept. 23.
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