Arjun Jindal

A small crowd gathers in front of Palo Alto Unified School District’s boardroom, hours before the doors open for tonight’s meeting. According to community member Sara Woodham, she is coming in support of Danae Reynolds, who was impacted by new board member Rowena Chiu’s recent online activity following the previous board meeting earlier this month. “The part that is truly concerning or worrisome is the use of social media to characterize that meeting and essentially re-tweeting a website that had all these flagrantly racist posts at the time of the reposting,” Woodham said. “It essentially led to Danae [Reynolds] getting even more threats and racist commentary. I also find it ironic because what spawned from the notion that Rowena felt unsafe is that Danae literally became unsafe, and it really became dangerous for her.”

The community members packed into the Palo Alto Unified School District’s boardroom are hushed as tonight’s meeting gets underway. The mood is tense following hours of waiting.

Seated in lawn chairs and waving signs, many are participating in a “Stand With Rowena” protest, other wearing “Support our educators” stickers and a group from the The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People looking to speak during open forum. 

The demonstration follows recent controversy surrounding board trustee Rowena Chiu, after she spoke of feeling “unsafe” in the Ethnic Studies board meeting two weeks ago. When administrator Danae Reynolds distinguished feeling “unsafe” from feeling “uncomfortable,” Chiu interpreted it as a response to her personal concerns. Chiu reposted a post on X that “villainized a PAUSD staff member,” according to the Palo Alto Educators Association. In the aftermath, she was asked to resign by the Palo Alto Management Association, which prompted over 2200 community members to sign a petition in support of Chiu to “defend integrity and open dialogue.”

Allyson Rosen, a former Paly parent, said she has placed her full support behind Chiu.

“We elected Rowena because she was a strong, intelligent, independent voice that represented her community beautifully,” Rosen said. “I am so deeply grateful for her courage, and her independent and respectful voice. I admire her so much.”

For parent Jo Zhou, Chiu speaking out that she felt “unsafe” should not have been dismissed in the board meeting.

“I was just really shocked at the way she was being shut down,” Zhou said. “Anybody can say they feel unsafe when they feel like it. I have two kids, and I want my son to say they don’t feel comfortable or they feel unsafe anytime they feel like it. The feeling is very subjective.”

Community member Deborah Goldeen shared a similar sentiment, saying that Chiu did no wrong in voicing her perspective.

“In terms of the Twitter post, she made an opinionated post, but there was nothing overtly racist or insulting,” Goldeen said. “It was just an honest opinion and she should be able to state her opinions. In Palo Alto politics, that’s the problem: if you’re not completely mild and bland, you just get piled on and it’s way overdone.”

Zhou said PAMA’s response to Chiu’s online activity was too extreme, and her resignation should be determined by what the people think.

“I can understand if the board wants her to apologize, but asking her to resign was too much,” Zhou said. “She was voted by the people and she was among the first who won with 19,000 votes. We are the people who decide whether we want her to step down, not the board.”

Contrarily, Sean Allen, Silicon Valley branch president of the NAACP, said he condemns the racist and inappropriate comments that have caused fear and discomfort in the community.

“When you’re having conversations about people, we have to respect all people and not be in a position of power where we’re soliciting violent, racist reactions,” Allen said. “That’s why we’re here, to make sure that everyone feels comfortable regardless of their race or political affiliation.”

According to Allen, Chiu failed to compose an adequate apology for the harm that was caused to Reynolds. 

“The comments she made to the African American staffer were just completely inappropriate,” Allen said. “It doesn’t matter what they look like or what their sexual preference is. If they’re feeling uncomfortable, then we need to address it publicly and have that conversation. … She made some statements, [but] I haven’t heard or seen any real type of apologetic position from her. The statements were very vague and it wasn’t she didn’t own up to the things that she did.”

For others waiting in line, some share a similar perspective condemning Chiu’s actions. According to community member Linda Henigin, Chiu made an irreparable mistake in reposting the X post.

“The tweet clearly had a picture of our black female staff member and biographical information about her that exposed her to personal harm, ridicule, and also may injure her future career prospects,” Henigin said. “I wish that trustee Chiu would apologize directly to Danae and remove all her social media postings about her so that Rowena repairs the harm she has caused to a staff member.”

Christina Schmidt, PAUSD parent and former Community Advisory Committee president, emphasized the importance of the Board of Education adhering to its responsibilities and bylaws.

“I’ve raised two children in this community, and I’ve been here for almost 20 years,” Schmidt said. “The reason I’m here tonight is because I want to be sure that the board stays true to its responsibility. … The Board of Education is the highest authority in our school district, and they need to be held accountable at a higher standard than just the average citizen because they are elected to office and they uphold the type of leadership and responsibilities that we want for our district.” 

According to Schmidt, adults in the community should treat each other with the same respect that is taught to children. 

“I don’t think that we can change people’s hearts and minds,” Schmidt said. “Everyone comes here with a different lived experience, and that’s why they take the sides that they do. I acknowledge everyone has their own experience and their feelings about what happens in education and how we treat each other, but if we teach our children to learn to treat each other well, and we point that out, then we should live that same truth as adults.”

Additional reporting by Ava Knapp.