Sacramento City Unified is still punishing the McClatchy High journalism teacher | Opinion

Instead of admitting that the principal at C.K. McClatchy High School made an error when she punished the teacher and students of the newspaper class, the Sacramento City Unified School District keeps doubling down and lawyering up.

The high school’s newspaper adviser, Samantha Archuleta, says she is still on administrative leave, pending review by the school district for … well, some secret reason that no one quite knows, including Archuleta.

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Before she told me she couldn’t comment publicly anymore on the advice of her lawyer, Archuleta said she believed her forced suspension in early May had everything to do with a controversial quote the student journalists published in The Prospector, the school’s student newspaper, a few weeks earlier.

In its spring edition printed on April 25, The Prospector published a feature titled “What did you say?” and promised to reveal “some of the weirdest stuff” overheard on campus. The newspaper reported that a student overheard a classmate say: “Hitler’s got some good ideas.”

This situation could have been a lesson for the students in careful writing and editing. Instead, they’re learning an entirely different lesson: Beware of school administrators.

“Instead of holding an open and thoughtful discussion of campus climate, the district retaliated against a teacher who stood up for press freedom,” said David Loy, Legal Director at the First Amendment Coalition.

Last week, the First Amendment Coalition, ACLU of Northern California, Student Press Law Center and the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative sent a letter to Lisa Allen, the superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District. In a five-page document, they protested the district’s treatment of Archuleta and urged that she be reinstated to her position. To ignore this would put the school district at risk of incurring “significant exposure to liability for statutory and constitutional violations,” the letter said.

“On May 7, soon after Ms. Archuleta spoke to the press and defended the students’ rights under California law to have published this statement, the district placed Ms. Archuleta on leave and told her that she was under investigation,” they wrote. “Without condoning the content of this statement, our organizations have strong concerns that the district’s actions violated California law and the First Amendment.”

Instead of addressing the environment at the school that produced such a quote, McClatchy Principal Andrea Egan and the Sac City Unified School District killed the messenger. Archuleta was suddenly placed on administrative leave, and two journalism students told me that they were made to feel intimidated and harassed by the adults who should be protecting them.

In an opinion piece published in The Bee, the president of the Sacramento City Unified Board of Education wrote that “it is SCUSD policy to never comment publicly on personnel matters out of respect for the privacy of our valued staff. While holding firm to our policy, we will share that no action has been taken against an employee or student because of the original comments printed in The Prospector.”

I don’t believe them, and I don’t think you should either.

“Without condoning the content of the quote, we are troubled by the district’s response to it,” said Chessie Thacher, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California. “The First Amendment and California law prohibit such censorship and retaliatory treatment.”

The McClatchy and SCUSD administration’s response to the situation continues to be a textbook example of how not to run a high school journalism program.

Teacher suspended without cause

Archuleta shared with me the language district officials have used to describe the reason for her suspension from her duties, including: “Expressing insensitive comments toward students and staff,” “sharing confidential student information,” “failure to maintain a harassment-free class environment” and “a lack of good judgment in the execution of professional duties.” But since receiving these missives last month, Archuleta has not been contacted by administrators.

“Removing the adviser was clearly an effort to control what the students publish,” said Steve O’Donoghue, director of the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative. “Under California law, student speech that only makes people uncomfortable is not sufficient disruption to justify censorship. To punish a faculty adviser for defending the rights of student editors sends a clear message that their editorial freedom is in danger.”

It’s also telling that Archuleta’s most recent in-class evaluation from earlier this year (written and signed off on by Principal Egan, no less), provided to me by Archuleta, gave her the highest possible marks. It is a glowing review, and it included no suggested improvements to her classroom or teaching style as of March 2024.

It seems not only to me; but also to many others including Loy, Thatcher and O’Donoghue, that the school district is hiding behind its confidentiality policies to retaliate and punish Archuleta. The school district’s punitive actions against the journalism teacher are egregious and heavy-handed. While they directed Archulata to a lawyer, it’s surprising and concerning that the local teachers union, the Sacramento City Teachers Association, has not publicly defended Archuleta.

But at least Archuleta is an adult who can handle a lousy employer. The teenage students in the newspaper class are being hung out to dry and completely forgotten by the very adults who should be protecting them.

Faculty allegedly bullying students

I talked to two of the seniors in the newspaper class at C.K. McClatchy, and neither of them (nor their families) wanted to have their names published — mostly because they’re terrified of potential backlash from the school.

But on the condition of anonymity, they told me that they felt punished by the principal and bullied by school faculty members. They said they did not have access to their assignments for weeks. Additionally, anything they write now must be approved by their new teacher — a textbook example of prior restraint. California’s Education Code guarantees that students retain editorial control over student newspapers — not school faculty and not administrators.

Journalists report sensitive, troubling and controversial material every day. The media — yes, even student media — should not be held responsible for the ideologies of the people they quote.

Students say school is ‘hell’

The students I spoke to said the bullying and harassment they’ve experienced — mostly from members of the school staff, including a school counselor — in the last few weeks have been “hell,” but that they are ready to graduate on June 11 and put the school behind them at last.

“If any student feels they have been subjected to harassment or mistreated by a school staff member, they should report it immediately so it can be properly investigated,” wrote district spokesman Brian Heap in an email. “If, for any reason, a student prefers not to speak with Principal Egan, there are four other assistant principals they can speak with on campus.”

At such a high school, that’s a bit like complaining to the prison guards about the quality of care. No wonder these students are eagerly counting down the days to graduation next week. If only Archuleta had that option.