High school journalism is often seen as a gentle apprenticeship: a place where teenagers cut their teeth on post-game reports from Friday night football or incremental updates of a student-council race. But at 17, Myesha Phukan wanted to work on something meatier. As a student reporter for the Oracle at Mountain View high school, she and a group of student journalists began methodically digging into a pattern of on-campus sexual harassment that, the reporters believed, administrators weren’t handling effectively. Over weeks of rigorous investigation, the Oracle amassed a substantial archive of evidence including screenshots, photos and witness accounts. The story investigated alleged on-campus offenders and consulted experts about the need for accountability when it comes to on-campus assault.
When Phukan and her fellow reporters asked the school’s principal for comment about the administration’s perceived inaction, tensions escalated. In several closed-door meetings, Phukan says she was warned that such an article could have “catastrophic” reputational repercussions, for the alleged offenders and the school. The original draft included descriptions of serious offenses, ranging from harassment, to attempted rape.
