IN-DEPTH
FEATURES
Having difficult conversations in an age of increasing political sensitivity
Staff and student experiences working with neurodivergent youth
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Palo Alto Unified School District Henry M. Gunn High School 780 Arastradero Rd Palo Alto, CA 94306
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THEOracle Henry M. Gunn High School
Friday, April 4, 2025
Volume 62, Issue 6
Superintendent’s Student Advisory Group Meeting
Students provide superintendent with perspectives on recent issues Melody Song Reporter At the Superintendent Student Advisory Group meeting on March 17, students met with Superintendent Dr. Don Austin to discuss the most pressing topics regarding PAUSD’s high schools. These included mental health, course delaning, artificial intelligence use and recent federal legislation. The forum was open to all PAUSD high school students.
Academic Stress
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Palo Alto social, political divisions increase amid local, national events Yu-Ming Liu Forum Editor In recent months, political and social tensions have heightened in Palo Alto, following PAUSD school board controversy, protests against popular electric vehicle manufacturing company Tesla and fractures within parent networks. With around 73% voter turnout in the 2024 general presidential election, according to Santa Clara County voting data, the region has been highly engaged in politics at the local, state and national level. However, this participation was 12% lower than the 2020 general election voter turnout. The data also shows that the county is relatively liberal, with 68% of voters voting for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and 28% voting for the Republican candidate Donald Trump, compared to the entire nation, with 48% of Americans voting for the Democratic candidate and 50% Republican. General left-leaning voting tendencies in the region align with recent shifts in reactions to political events on local and national levels.
School Board During a special PAUSD board meeting on Jan. 23, Board Member Rowena Chiu stated that she had “not felt very safe” on the dais regarding feedback she had recieved from the community. According to the video recording of the meeting, around 50 minutes later, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Danaé Reynolds, a Black woman, made a comment about the correct rhetoric for Chiu to use, stating that the word “unsafe” was reserved for cases such as worrying about whether her husband would come home. On Jan. 27, Chiu reposted an X account named “Asians Against Wokeness” that made a post arguing that Reynolds silenced Chiu on the premise of being Asian, with many in the comments section
calling Reynolds a racist. Chiu took down her repost a few days later, but controversy quickly brewed: The Palo Alto Educators Association revoked their endorsement of Chiu, with members of the Palo Alto Management Association calling for her to resign in a signed document. On Feb. 11, School Board Vice President Shana Segal and Board Member Shounak Dharap introduced a resolution to reassign Chiu, which caught the attention of many meeting attendees. At the March 11 board meeting, PAEA president Teri Baldwin reported that Chiu was unwilling to meet with the executive board to discuss her actions due to PAEA’s rejection of Chiu’s preconditions, including having an attorney present and a video recording of their meeting.
Parent and Student Reactions
One of the large group discussions focused on academic stress. In his March 21 Superintendent’s Update Austin w rote, “In PAUSD sur veys, students ranked academic s t r e s s a s a le ad i ng r i sk f ac tor for yout h s u ic ide .” During the meeting he also said that district mental hea lt h professiona ls repor ted ac ademic stress as the reason for over half of student visits. The advisory g r oup d i s c u s sion’s goa l w a s to ident i f y it s c au s e s. Nearly all attendees contributed, agreeing that academic stress was primarily caused by the pressure to attend prestigious colleges, driven by fear of peer judgement or a desire to live up to both internal and external expectations. Junior Aman Solanki shared his experience with the latter reason. “A ll of our parents worked really hard to get here,” he said. “All of us want to follow a similar path to them, so we can get the same life for our kids. For me, my parents got (into) UCLA, and I know they’re successful, so I really want to go (too) so I can follow the same path.” Before the meeting, he wrote to Mental Health and Wellness Director Dawn Yoshinaga to survey wellness staff and counselors to see if student and staff perspectives align. According to Austin, if these perspectives align it will be easier to channel resources and target the roots of stress. “(My) biggest takeaway is that a lot of students are feeling exactly the same way, regardless of the family or culture you come from,” he said. “I think we have underestimated the Palo Alto school system culture and, instead, try to think that there’s differences within subsets of students (which is) less true than most people think.” Following the meeting, Austin carried these concerns into his update, where he emphasized hearing firsthand student accounts and addressed student mental health as a priority.
Biology ‘Delaning’
Overall, these events have been extremely divisive: Some saw Chiu’s actions in reposting the account as justified, arguing that Reynolds was in the wrong and acted to silence Asian voices, while others believed that Chiu’s actions were unjustified, seeing the repost as an attempt to have Palo Alto flip against Reynolds. Others did not know what to think. The situation itself exemplifies that the city is more divided on social issues than once thought. According to a PAUSD parent, who requested anonymity to prevent social backlash, a sizable portion of the Asian community was outraged at the resolution. However, Chiu’s actions also were not justified. “She has a right to free speech, so she can say things,” they said. “But now that Chiu is in a leadership position, it wasn’t a wise thing to do. You have to work with the teachers and staff, and you have to get them to trust you.” Division on local politics also led to the eventual splitting of parent group chats on WeChat, a popular messaging app used by primarily Asian parents. According to a different PAUSD parent
A f te r t he s c ho ol b o a r d me e t i ng on Ja nu a r y 21 , which approved the merging of honors and non-honors biolog y level classes, there has been discourse about t he r e a son i ng a nd ef f ic ienc y b eh i nd t h i s de c i sion. Some students supported the decision, saying eliminating the “honors” label would reduce peer pressure and give students more confidence. Others had concerns about preparedness for more advanced science classes after removing the honors lane. “I know a lot of people who struggled in (Chemistry Honors), and I can’t imagine now what it’s like for people who aren’t in Biology Honors (anymore) because we’re de-laning it,” junior Deven Sharma said. “Jumping to Chemistry Honors, I’m going to imagine that’s going to be a pretty difficult jump for some people.” According to Sharma, who is also a member of the advisory group’s Planning Committee, the discussion with students may not lead to any immediate changes but was originally intended to set a precedent for future initiatives. “Ultimately, we just wanted to see what students actually thought of (the delaning),” Sharma said. “It’s just a way that we wanted to (increase) student input on it because I don’t know that Dr. Austin received much input on it before.”
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