GILROY
– For Gilroy High School, the 2003-04 school year was more
eventful than most.
GILROY – For Gilroy High School, the 2003-04 school year was more eventful than most. It was full of turbulence, from the nearly year-long battle over the reading list to a teacher being fired and escorted off campus to students saying they were harassed after standing up for what they believed µwas right. Controversy came from all sides – parents, teachers, students, administrators – filling the pages of The Dispatch with news stories, editorials, columns and hundreds of letters from the community.
Improved Test Scores
The year got off to a promising start with the release of the school’s test scores from Spring 2003. Although too few students were tested, their scores improved over the prior year.
Gilroy High improved its state Academic Performance Index score by 38 points this year, far surpassing the county average of a 15.3-point improvement. Over the last five years, GHS’s API is up 52 points, compared with a county average of 30.5.
Reading Literature Advisory Group
Controversy over the GHS reading list, sparked last year, picked up again last fall with the formation of the Reading Literature Advisory Group.
At the end of the fall semester, the English department – after a recommendation from the reading list group and apparently over the objections of some school staff – decided to pilot and eventually adopt an English textbook. The textbook, teachers say, will shore up the department’s curriculum throughout all four years.
Free Speech Violated?
Last October, Dispatch columnist Cynthia Walker began recounting the story of GHS junior Alex Williams , who said staff and administration at GHS – in spring 2003 – prevented her and fellow students from distributing petitions, posting fliers and wearing vests on campus in support of an English teacher who had received a lay-off notice.
The high school denied Williams’ claim. Meanwhile, both the student and her mother said the media attention and a district lawyer’s investigation brought scrutiny, mistrust from GHS staff and stress.
Racy Drama Skits
In February, a compilation of skits designed to showcase the drama classes’ skills instead featured racy content that Principal Bob Bravo and Superintendent Edwin Diaz called inappropriate.
Some students said the performances of a few got out of hand. Drama teacher Kurt Meeker said much of the material was created specifically for high school students and had been performed at GHS for years.
Nevertheless, a few weeks later, Meeker was not re-hired for the next school year.
Kristen Porter
English teacher Kristen Porter also was not re-hired by the district and vocally opposed the administration’s reason for doing so: She said she was told she was not “a good fit,” with little explanation. She spoke out through The Dispatch and again at a school board meeting, asking school administrators and trustees to offer a more specific reason for her firing.
In late March, the morning after speaking to the board, the 10-year teacher’s classroom keys were taken, school security escorted her off campus and, she says, threatened to arrest her.
District officials said she was immediately dismissed for unprofessional behavior inside the classroom.
A month later, an unidentified person attacked Porter on a district employee’s personal Web log for having participated in a “stripping” improvisational comedy troupe.
Porter had perhaps the most influence over school-related letters to the editor this year. After her firing, other teachers corroborated her story of being dismissed for not fitting in. And after the “character assassination,” as one person put it, numerous current and former students wrote in her defense.
Campus Lockdown
At 9:29 a.m. on May 14, Gilroy police say a girl masking her voice to sound male called 9-1-1 from a stolen cell phone and told the dispatcher she had a gun, was at GHS and planned to shoot her cooking teacher.
What followed was a harrowing, three-hour lockdown of the campus. As police canvassed the school carrying assault rifles, panicked parents waited on the street, communicating with their children inside via cell phones.
The threat turned out to be a prank, police say, but the consequences are real: Gilroy police estimate it cost them more than $17,000. The three students were arrested about six hours after the call was placed and remain in Juvenile Hall, facing various legal charges – including making terrorist threats – and expulsion.
Beheading Viewed in Class
In May, a group of students watched the videotaped beheading of American civilian Nick Berg during an English class. At the time, some students said their teacheraided them in getting to the Web site. They questioned the video’s relevance to the day’s lessons.
Following an investigation, the high school cleared the teacher of being involved in the video’s viewing. Subsequently, those students who said the teacher helped, refused to elaborate.
