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San Ramon Valley High School Video Controversy

San Ramon Valley High School entrance sign

The San Ramon Valley High School Video Controversy was an amateur film created by a student of San Ramon Valley High School in May, 2017 of their junior year. The video was originally made for a school presidential election where the student ran and won office. After controversy surrounding the video circulated through the San Ramon community, it quickly became labeled as racially derogatory toward Middle Eastern people and stereotypical of the Islamic religion. Following the election, the student was removed from their position as a student body president and revoked from participating in any of the school's leadership programs.

Following the Video's Release

San Ramon Valley Unified School District headquaters

After the video was removed due to the Privacy Act of 1974, the students parents, David and Leilanie Yu, argued that he won the election fairly and therefore deserved the role, but the school's decision still stood. Following his removal and only when the parents decided to file a law suit against the school, San Ramon Valley High School reinstated the student back as the student body president. The school's decision sparked more controversy over the matter and lead over 50 protesters to rally at a school district board meeting. There was also a large public protest among the students body where hundreds of students walked out of class to pretest against the districts decision.

Board Meeting

The ensuing board meeting had a number of speakers whom all addressed the video's racist context and disputed its relevance to Islamophobia. At the hearing, the teen boy's First Amendment Attorney, Gill Sperlein, announced to the students that the student responsible for the video had all of their demands meet by the district, and would no resign from his position as a student-body president. This lead to much discontent among many members of the audience, and further conversation on prejudice/ racial stereotypes.

The Walkout

East Bay Area (where San Ramon Valley is)

Although the numbers are debated, it was listed by East Bay Times that there was over 200 students that participated in a Walkout in May 2017. The students that left class disputed that their leave was on the bases of promoting "love and equality" for all in the Danville area, but this opinion of the protest was not consistent among the entire student body. No information was provided on how the San Ramon High School faculty dealt with a demonstration of this size. The school also did not release any public statements following its occurrence.

Go Fund Me Suing Venture

After the student was reinstated, the Yu family felt that the school and district handled the situation poorly. According to them, rather than helping their son, he was subjected him to even more criticism because the school failed to control their student body. The family created a GoFundMe where they successfully raised their goal of 25,000$ and plan to use it to sue the district for infringing the student's 1st amendment rights. The page has an excerpt that details some of the particular aspects of the school's "malpractice" from the Yu's perspective. As of March 23, 2018, the End Institutional Bullying page (name of the Yu's families GoFundMe) had 28,865$ in funds with 423 backers.The most recent donation was eight months ago.

The GoFundMe Page Description

The GoFundMe page is the only resource online of strictly the Yu family's perspective of the matter. In its description, they first give their own depiction of the entire election and the punishment that ensued as a result of the controversial video.They also stated here that the school was disorderly with their treatment of their son and "bullied" him. Among their many details, the school was criticized for holding him three times as long as the other participants of the election in a hearing, "interrogating" him during lunch time brake and not provide or allow him to eat lunch as well as confiscating his phone for no legitimate reason. Although it does not say explicitly, the page owner as well as the author of the except was Leilanie Yu (the student's mother).

Attempt to Open Sealed Documents Containing the Video

After 6 months following the video incident, students reporters Anumita Jain and Armaan Rashid of the Dougherty High School newspaper, The Wildcat Tribune, attempted to acquire the sealed court documents of the case. After being refused two times, the students contacted the Student Press Law Center where they were given the volunteer attorneys Dennis Herman and John George, whom assisted them with the rest of the process. Despite Herman coming up with the predicate on how nobody can fairly judge the case if nobody has access, they were unable to unseal the case.