The Palo Alto Unified School District is implementing Ethics Studies as a graduation requirement for incoming freshmen after multiple contentious school board meetings that resulted in board member Rowena Chiu being reassigned to a new set of liaison roles.
During a special meeting on Jan. 23, the board voted 3-2 in favor of Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement. Next year, incoming freshmen will take one semester of World History and one semester of Ethnic Studies. Board members Shounak Dharap, Shana Segal and Joshua Salcman voted to keep the requirement while Alison Kamhi and Rowena Chiu voted to pause the mandate in order to get more community feedback. At the meeting, Chiu said that she felt “unsafe” after receiving feedback from the community.
“During the break, I was visibly shaking, and I had to lock myself in the bathroom,” Chiu told Verde.
On Jan. 27, Chiu reposted an X post from “Asians Against Wokeness” titled “Palo Alto school board meeting gangs up on Asian school board member.” The post also includes a screenshot of PAUSD employee Danaé Reynolds’ staff profile, alleging that Reynolds “lectures her [Chiu] about how the word ‘unsafe’ is essentially inappropriate for people of Asian background because Asians are not truly oppressed.”
Board member Shounak Dharap said public figures must be careful about their social media presence.
“When the conduct of a board member, intentional or not, puts the spotlight on a professional career educator who never signed up for it, that’s a problem,” Dharap said.
On Jan 29., 13 former PAUSD school board members wrote a letter condemning Chiu for reposting, asserting that “such use of social media is detrimental, unprofessional and unacceptable.” The Palo Alto Management Association released a similar letter criticizing Chiu, and called for her resignation from the school board. The Palo Alto Educators Association also issued a statement condemning Chiu and revoked its endorsement of her. Chiu said that her X repost was a poor judgement call and that she does not identify nor associate with “Asians Against Wokeness.”
“It [the post] may have put another human being at risk, and moreover, another woman of color,” Chiu said. “I am also a woman of color and it would never be my intention to put another woman of color at risk. I fully acknowledge that that was the impact of that repost and I am deeply sorry that that is the unintended impact of my actions.”
At a board meeting on Feb. 11, the Board voted 4-1 to pass a countermotion that will reassign Chiu to new roles, including Los Altos Town Council Liaison, Santa Clara County Committee on District Organization and the Santa Clara County School Boards Association.