Journalism instructor at LAUSD magnet school suspended for refusing to censor school newspaper
A local high school teacher was recently suspended after she failed to adhere to the school's request to censor the student-run newspaper.
Adriana Chavira has been teaching at Los Angeles Unified School District's Daniel Pearl High School for 14 years, and as a former journalist herself, she has a lot of pride in what she's taught at the school.
"I've been living and breathing journalism since I was, like, 16," said Chavira, who advises the school paper, The Pearl Post.
But, the longtime journalism instructor was recently suspended by LAUSD for an article that the award-winning school newspaper published last winter.
"I love my job. I love the school. I love the students," said Chavira. "I mean they work hard for this, and it's very frustrating."
The story was about the COVID-19 vaccine mandate LAUSD issued for faculty and it identified a former librarian at the school who stopped working there because she refused to get the vaccine, leaving the nearly 200 students without access to their library.
But things took a turn when the librarian asked Chavira that her name be removed from the online article.
"She was very public about not being vaccinated. She told us about being unvaccinated and we thought it was important news, so we decide to include it. We didn't think that much about it," said Delilah Brummer, Daniel Pearl student and former Editor-in-Chief of the paper.
Chavira left the decision up to the students, forwarding them the request via email "because it's a student-run publication. ... Here's the request, discuss amongst yourselves what you're gonna do."
The students decided not to remove the name, leading to Chavira's three-day unpaid suspension, after she refused to go around the students and delete the name.
"She claimed we violated HIPAA. Did we violate HIPAA? We talked to the Student Press Law Center and no we didn't violate HIPAA. And two, is this newsworthy to keep her name and we decided, yes it is," Brummer added.
Yesterday, I was given a 3-day unpaid suspension over a censorship issue surrounding a story my students published last fall. With guidance from @SPLC, my student editors have stood up for their First Amendment rights & I've supported their decisions. (1/4) https://t.co/Afcd7p8vWY
— Adriana Chavira (@adrianachavira) September 3, 2022
It is the first time in her 20-year teaching career that Chavira has been suspended, something which she has appealed.
Pearl's father, Dr. Judea Pearl, has condemned the suspension and said the suspension sends the wrong message to the school's students.
"It's not something that I wish for a school named after my son," he said. "There are things that behoove us to take back what we think should be written. But in this case, I don't see this. There was no invasion of privacy because it was obvious who was not showing up."
CBS reached out to LAUSD for a comment on the suspension but opted not speak about the matter. Instead the district sent thE following statement:
"While we are unable to address ongoing personnel matters, we will continue to support our students and their journalistic endeavors at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School while also respecting the concerns of our school community," the statement read.
Daniel Pearl High School is the only journalism magnet school in Los Angeles Unified School District district, named after the Wall Street Journal journalist who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002.
After the story was aired, DPMHS contacted Chavira and rescinded the suspension. However, they did not give any reason as to why the punishment was lifted.