Palo Alto Unified School District – A Case Study in What Not to Do
By Mitch Siegler, Founder

The saga over ethnic studies in the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), which we have been writing about and posting about on social media for weeks, has finally concluded. The District’s actions are a masterclass in how not to deal effectively with the community, and they present a number of important lessons.

PAUSD serves a highly educated, well informed, and engaged community. Over the past months, Trustees have worked in lockstep with Liberated Ethnic Studies (LES) activists to deceive the Palo Alto community, disregard the wishes of parents and community members, and demonize those who disagree with their agenda.

The process started normally enough. California passed a law requiring all high school students to pass an ethnic studies class, so PAUSD started designing a curriculum.

Unfortunately, that’s when they made their first mistake – working with UC Berkeley’s History Social-Science Project. It’s the very definition of radical ideology disguised as ethnic studies education, employing resources like “The Four I’s of Oppression” and defining its pedagogy as going “beyond the passive, multicultural studies approach that previously characterized inclusive instruction”. Unlike Berkeley’s “liberated” approach, of course, the multicultural approach is overwhelmingly supported by parents.

Then, just months before the graduation mandate was set to start, parents asked to see the draft curriculum. Instead of providing it, PAUSD ignored and stonewalled the parents, eventually producing a brainstorming document that was not the final curriculum and did not accurately represent the course’s more radical content. Some parents had to resort to filing a legal claim, a Public Records Act demand for the course curriculum, which was also ignored for months.

Then, Governor Newsom chose not to fund California Assembly Bill 101, nullifying the ethnic studies requirement since it required state funding to take effect. At this point, PAUSD decided to pause the implementation of their own course, which despite being piloted had still not been made public – a sensible approach that could have provided more time for robust public engagement and thoughtful dialogue.

But, just a week later, the Trustees backtracked, voting to make the still unreleased course mandatory. That meeting was characterized by one-sided acrimony, with a handpicked slate of public commenters who overwhelmingly supported the mandate demonizing anyone who disagreed.

During that public meeting, Trustee Rowena Chiu, who won her seat in Fall 2024 on a platform emphasizing transparency, expressed concerns about the lack of public engagement in the course’s development and the haste with which the course was being voted on. That made her a target for activists in the room, despite her longstanding support for ethnic studies education; she’s been teaching a class on it for years.

Herself a survivor of sexual violence and racist intimidation, Chiu, an Asian woman, expressed concerns for her safety multiple times during the meeting, at one point asking for adjournment. She was not taken seriously – but it gets worse.

PAUSD Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Danae Reynolds, who is black, attempted to police Chiu’s language in a racialized way, arguing that certain groups don’t have the right to feel unsafe in comparison to the black community.

Ironically, the notion of enforcing a hierarchy of victimhood is a central tenet of LES.

Ms. Chiu went home, saw a social media post that depicted the incident and supported her concerns, and she shared it. Comments on the post grew nasty – this is social media, after all – with some commenters making racist and threatening statements directed at Reynolds.

The Palo Alto Educators Association, which had endorsed Chiu in her recent electoral campaign, asked that she remove her sharing of the post to avoid stoking further antagonism towards Reynolds. Acutely aware of the impact of racist hate, she complied immediately, but it wasn’t enough.

Things rapidly escalated. The teachers union rescinded their endorsement and released an extremely aggressive letter condemning Chiu. Every principal in PAUSD called for her resignation, and the Board proposed a misleading and condescending resolution to remove her from certain public engagement roles, essentially censuring her.

Thankfully, the community that the Board had repeatedly disrespected came out in force to support Chiu, who also delivered a powerful speech defending herself. Public commenters, including dozens of students and parents, supported her, and the resolution was defeated.

All this could have been avoided if PAUSD had simply followed THINC’s principles.

• Transparency – PAUSD still hasn’t released the full curriculum, despite multiple Public Records Act requests and demands from parents.
• Honesty – PAUSD backtracked on pausing the implementation of their controversial curriculum.
• Integrity – PAUSD hounded and attempted to silence Trustee Chiu rather than reckoning with the content of her concerns.

Cases like this are why THINC exists. We collaborated with a local grassroots advocacy group, Palo Alto Parents United, alongside the parent who filed the Public Records Act request, to amplify this issue – read more about our work here.

If you know of another school district that’s ignoring or silencing parent voices in favor of implementing LES, let us know! We’ll be happy to help.