SFUSD Punished a Teacher for Protecting Student Journalists

When administrators punish teachers for protecting student journalists, they prove exactly why student journalism matters. A San Francisco court just delivered that lesson to SFUSD.

The Court’s Verdict: SFUSD Broke the Law

San Francisco County Superior Court ruled this week that Lowell High School administrators illegally reassigned journalism teacher Eric Gustafson for doing exactly what he should have done: defending his students’ First Amendment rights.

According to EdSource, Gustafson had taught journalism at Lowell since 2017. Principal Jan Bautista removed him from his journalism class and reassigned him to teach English after students published a story about alleged verbal harassment by teachers. The students were doing real journalism—holding power accountable—and the administration’s response was to punish the teacher who let them.

The court found this violated California’s Journalism Teacher Protection Act, which explicitly prohibits schools from retaliating against educators who defend student press freedoms. Now Bautista must reinstate Gustafson within 30 days.

My Experience: Censorship Is Power Speaking to Truth

This case resonates deeply with me because I lived the same dynamic decades ago.

Archived tweet

In high school my journalism teacher killed my story about how Fremont Unified School District had far more severe punishments for our working class high school vs the district crown jewel high school Censorship of the truth is power speaking to truth I never forgot that lesson https://t.co/quFrnKQDQA [Quoting @incitafusio]: Principal Bautista & her leadership have no credibility to be leading Lowell, a prestigious SF merit-based school, whose teachers & students are being intimidated & sidelined regularly by political ideology & incompetence. SFUSD is being run mostly by subpar bureaucrats & union hacks. Our students and teachers deserve better than this. "The ruling “is so clearly a defense of student journalism..That’s the thing that makes me happiest and is the biggest relief.”"

Garry Tan @garrytan January 30, 2026

In high school, my journalism teacher killed my story about how Fremont Unified School District had far more severe punishments for our working-class high school compared to the district’s “crown jewel” school. The story wasn’t wrong—it was inconvenient. The powerful didn’t want it told, so it got buried.

I never forgot that lesson: censorship of the truth is power speaking to truth.

The Lowell case shows the same pattern playing out again. When student journalists reported something uncomfortable—alleged harassment by teachers—the institutional response wasn’t to investigate the problem. It was to silence the messenger. Remove the journalism teacher. Make the story go away.

SFUSD’s Pattern of Dysfunction

This isn’t an isolated incident. It fits a broader pattern at SFUSD where bureaucrats and administrators prioritize politics and self-protection over students and teachers.

Lowell has faced ongoing controversies around admissions standards being watered down. When the school temporarily moved to a lottery system, approximately 100 students failed out because they weren’t academically prepared for the rigor. The district has dealt with $113 million budget deficits and faced a 2022 school board recall driven by parents fed up with dysfunction.

New leadership has made some progress reducing central office bloat, but incidents like this show the institutional culture hasn’t fully changed. Teachers and students still face intimidation when they challenge the bureaucracy.

Student journalism exists precisely to hold institutions accountable. When administrators try to silence it, they prove why it matters. California’s Journalism Teacher Protection Act exists for exactly this reason—and it worked. The court got it right.

Now SFUSD needs to learn the lesson.

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