Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education voted 4-1, with board trustee Rowena Chiu dissenting, on a countermotion to a resolution reassigning Chiu’s district position following the board meeting voting last night.
Before the resolution was voted on, Chiu proposed a countermotion to be reassigned.
Chiu proposed the motion as an alternative to Resolution 4A, which was titled “To Restore Trust in Board Governance,” and stated that Chiu should: (1) meet with Palo Alto Educators Association and Palo Alto Management Association, and (2) be reassigned from her current position to the following roles: Los Altos Town Council Liaison, Santa Clara County Committee on District Organization, and the Santa Clara County School Boards Association.
The initial resolution was proposed in the wake of Chiu’s recent social media activity, which resulted in her losing an endorsement from the Palo Alto Educators Association and being asked to resign by the Palo Alto Management Association. After Chiu said she was committed to following the terms listed in the resolution, she believed keeping the item would only cause public humiliation.
“The resolution no longer seems to serve any substantive purpose, because I am already willing to meet and apologize to the people listed, and I’m also willing to accept the proposed reassignments,” Chiu said. “The only possible remaining purpose of the resolution is to publicly shame me and to distort what is happening here. … We can either vote for a resolution that might be viewed as divisive, dismissive and an attempt to silence me under the guise of protecting me, or we can start from square one and learn the lessons from the last couple of weeks.”
Chiu issued a statement before her proposed countermotion, and said that she was heartbroken by the divide in the community and emphasized her intentions of accountability and transparency.
“I’d like to start by reaffirming my commitment to parents, students and teachers of our school district,” Chiu said. “I am heartbroken to observe the contention and division that has been sown in our community. Firstly and most importantly, I would like to address my remarks to Ms. Danae Reynolds, please believe me that it wasn’t my intention to be associated in any way with the perception of harm to another woman of color, even inadvertently. … Secondly, I would like to address the principals and teachers that have spoken out against me through their associations, … my only intent was to ensure accountability and transparency and to make sure that every child in this district feels safe to go to school.”
Board trustee Alison Kamhi said she wasn’t confident that the resolution would effectively restore trust in the board and encouraged the board members to work on mending the relationship between themselves and the community.
“I want to note I feel very saddened by all the attention that is spent right now on adult behavior and not on the job that we are here to do, which is to serve the students,” Kamhi said. “If this resolution is meant to restore trust in the governance as it is titled, … I don’t actually see that here as written, so I want to be clear about what I would like to see. I would like [us] to … build or rebuild relationships between the board and staff and community, so that everybody feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and disagreeing in public, including in sensitive conversations about sensitive topics.”
According to Dharap, a large part of the community was misinformed about the sequence of events that occurred during the Ethnic Studies board meeting, and the X post only further twisted the narrative.
“Ms. Chiu did say that she felt unsafe at one point in the beginning,” Dharap said. “Nearly 50 minutes later, Ms. [Samantha] Fan asked a question about community fears that were being discussed… and so when Ms. Reynolds answered the question, she talked about her lived experience as a black woman. She wasn’t referring to Asian Americans, because the question was very clearly not about Asian Americans. Then the X post said it was essentially a comment about Asians, [and] that’s the narrative that took place. It was repeated over and over and over again, until many people now believe Ms. Reynolds said that Asians don’t have a right to feel safe.”
“On Jan 27., a board member shared a post on X that identified the PAUSD employee by name and photograph,” Segal said. “It’s equivalent to a company’s CEO publicly criticizing an employee’s views, or a principal publicly singling out a teacher’s statement, bringing about racist and hateful comments underneath. It must also be noted that this board member commented within the post, embedded with the other comments. I cannot say those comments out loud, because when I read them, I cried with those comments. You can see the comments that are still there, and the last time I looked, it [the post] had 78,000 views.”
“As leaders of the organization, we must be cognizant of the power imbalance between the board and district employees,” Segal said. “When board members take actions that create the potential for harassment of our employees, we risk fostering a hostile workplace environment. I want it stated for the record that on Jan. 28 I emailed board Chiu to remind her of the board bylaws we must abide by, and I asked her to take that [Chiu’s comment] down. It was not until yesterday that she responded to that email.”
The topic drew split perspectives from a crowd of students, parents, teachers and community members, with a majority of speakers supporting Chiu and arguing against the passing of the resolution.
Lydia Kou, former Palo Alto mayor, said that passing the resolution encourages a culture of humiliation and silence.
“Leaders lead with courage, integrity and communication, and while there are a lot of words spoken by the leaders, action is what is observed by those watching and learning tonight,” Kou said. “You bring forth this resolution that is titled ‘To Restore Trust in Board Governance, yet it is directed at one person and attempts to humiliate, silence, shame and counsel them.
Kou said that during a time of global hardship, leaders should set a better example.
“At the meeting on Jan. 23 there were unnecessary statements made, such as, who can say the word unsafe, imposing that the feeling is uncomfortable, [and] that one ethnically suffers more than another,” Kou said. “Do we really need this kind of separation? Currently, where there’s so much devastation for humanity around the world, what is evident and clear is that as adults and leaders, your actions here tonight with this resolution will show and allow the students and youth to humiliate, silence, shame and cancel anyone here who does not agree with you.”
Opposing arguments highlighted the impact that Chiu’s post had on administrator Danae Reynolds. According to Palo Alto High School senior Briar Dorogusker, she was upset at Chiu’s choices on social media.
“Earlier this year, at the Ethnic Studies board meeting, my peers and I came to respectfully and passionately share our opinions,” Dorogusker said. “Because of these opinions, one of our adult representatives felt unsafe through the respectful voices and input of students. What followed was an egregious retaliation against a staff member, and I am left to wonder if students are safe from egregious retaliation in response to dissenting opinions.”
In an interview with The Paly Voice after the meeting concluded, Chiu said she was grateful for the outpour of encouragement from her supporters.
“I’ve been really touched by the number of Asian-American parents and students that have come forward to speak,” Chiu said. “I think it is fair to say that traditionally, Asian Americans find it hard to speak in a public forum, and so I want to be able to recognize the difficulty of that. … I still find public speaking really frightening, and of course, for me personally, tonight was especially terrifying because it really felt like I was on trial. It was hard for me to come here, and it was hard for me to speak, and so I’m very, very grateful to all the supporters who came.”
