Mountain View High School Principal Kip Glazer has asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit accusing her of censoring the student newspaper, filing a 19-page court statement in which she denies pressuring journalists and insists she never threatened them with consequences over a 2023 story on sexual harassment.
The statement, filed July 30, is Glazer's most detailed public defense yet in a case that began when former Oracle adviser Carla Gomez, along with students Hanna Olson and Hayes Duenow, sued Glazer and the Mountain View-Los Altos school district on February 22, 2024. As reported by the Palo Alto Daily Post, the plaintiffs allege Glazer and the district censored an Oracle article and then retaliated against Gomez by removing her as the paper's advisor. The suit's filing date was not incidental — the Student Press Law Center notes it intentionally coincided with Student Press Freedom Day, a national campaign spotlighting censorship of student reporters.
What the Original Article Said
The Oracle article at the center of the dispute, titled “I Just Felt Like Nobody Cared”: Students Open Up About Their Experiences With Sexual Harassment, published in modified form on March 30, 2023. It detailed instances of male students sending inappropriate and unwanted messages, and per the Daily Post's reporting, it included accusations of harassment, stalking and attempted rape, along with references to unsolicited nude photos. Glazer has said she was shocked by an article accusing multiple students of serious crimes, and she has said the accused students were easily identifiable and that the piece was inaccurate.
According to the lawsuit's timeline, Glazer visited the journalism class on March 26, 2023, and met again with Gomez and students the following day. Court filings describe her warning that the article could cause catastrophic consequences and telling students the paper should present the school in a positive light and be uplifting, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Students say they removed 11 examples of information from the article after meeting with Glazer, and the lawsuit alleges she pressured them to replace sexually explicit messages with vague descriptions and to cut references to the school failing to hold harassers accountable. Glazer, in her statement, said she did not demand changes or threaten students with consequences, and said the decision to publish was ultimately up to the students themselves.
Parents, a Requested Advance Copy, and a Reassignment
Court records show parents of an accused student contacted Glazer and administrator Jonathan Robell on March 24, 2023, complaining about the article and, according to the filings, fearing their son would attempt suicide again if it were published. Robell reportedly asked Gomez to relay his concerns to the journalism class and later said her response was not that of an educator. Glazer has said the accused students' parents were upset about the article and that she requested an advance copy of the newspaper before publication.
On April 28, 2023, Glazer announced that drama teacher Zachary Pancho Morris would replace Gomez for the following school year, reassigning Gomez to teach English and combining journalism with the yearbook class. Glazer has said the move was about saving money and strengthening Career and Technical Education. The plaintiffs call that rationale pretextual, noting The Oracle was not designated a CTE program during the 2023-2024 school year and that Morris lacked prior journalism experience or an appropriate journalism-specific credential, according to the Student Press Law Center. Glazer has also said she wanted to shift The Oracle from print toward a more digital operation and has said she did not regret trying to educate, lead and guide the student journalists.
A Teacher's Retaliation Claim, and a Judge's Earlier Ruling
Palo Alto High School journalism adviser Paul Kandell, who addressed the school board on May 28, 2023, said Glazer appeared to be trying to control and kill Mountain View's journalism program, according to the Daily Post's reporting. Glazer has also said the article accused a teacher of facilitating a culture of sexual harassment. The case against Glazer personally has already survived one legal test: in May 2024, Judge Evette Pennypacker ruled that Glazer could be sued over the allegedly censored article, denying her motion to dismiss the individual claims and allowing the suit to proceed against her alongside the claims against the district.
The plaintiffs are being represented pro bono by First Amendment law firm Jassy Vick Carolan LLP, with advisory support from the Student Press Law Center's volunteer Attorney Referral Network. In November 2024, the Student Press Law Center awarded Oracle student journalists its national Courage Award for resisting administrative pressure and educating peers about press freedom rights. The plaintiffs are seeking reinstatement of Gomez as adviser, publication of the original article, and protections against future censorship, according to court filings.
The Statute at the Center of the Case
California was one of the earliest states to pass so-called New Voices legislation countering the U.S. Supreme Court's 1988 Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision, which gave public school administrators broad authority to censor school-sponsored publications, according to El Estoque. The California Legislature passed a first-in-the-nation student free-expression law in 1971, protecting student expression in official school publications while exempting material that is obscene, libelous or slanderous, or that incites lawbreaking or substantial campus disruption. Education Code Section 48907 also contains an anti-retaliation provision — sometimes called the California Journalism Teacher Protection Act — that bars public school districts from disciplining, reassigning or firing media advisers solely for protecting student journalists' free expression, per The Paly Voice.
That statute has already reshaped a comparable Bay Area dispute. In January, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Christine Van Aken cited Education Code 48907 in ordering the San Francisco Unified School District to reinstate Lowell High School journalism adviser Eric Gustafson, ruling his reassignment over controversial student articles amounted to illegal retaliation. That decision offers a regional precedent as Mountain View's case heads toward its own reckoning.
What Comes Next
Glazer has said she was responsible for the health and safety of all students, framing her actions as guidance rather than censorship, and has denied censoring the article at all. But the legal fight is far from over. A motion-to-dismiss hearing is set before Judge Eunice Lee on October 20, and Santa Clara County Superior Court has scheduled the case for trial on November 23, according to court filings, as reported by the Daily Post. Until then, the dueling accounts — an administrator who says she was protecting students from harm, and journalists who say they were silenced — remain unresolved.
