Case 09-13-5901
OCR REPORT HERALDS NEW ERA ON CAMPUS Text by ASHLEY HITCHINGS, NOGA HURWITZ and TARA MADHAV Art by EOIN O’KRAMER
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ORMER PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIpal Phil Winston was many things. He was a colorful presence on campus. A jokester. A gregarious guy beloved by parents and students alike. In fact, he even took a lax attitude towards streaking, considering it a student tradition. Due to Winston’s casual demeanor, it was common to hear students call him “Chill Phil,” instead of the formal “Mr. Winston” when they saw him around campus. But there was another side to “Chill Phil.” He made inappropriate remarks to students about their clothes, relationships and even — in an incident cited in a 2013 formal notice of “unprofessional conduct” — “asked if [a student’s] boobs hurt when [she] was running naked through the quad.” Winston had an attitude and ego that carried over into his relationship with faculty, especially female staff members, and reflected the leniency of his adherence to proper workplace behavior. In June 2013, after three years of aggregating 25 complaints of sexual harassment made by faculty members against Winston, one of Paly’s assistant principals — identified as current principal Kim Diorio by the Palo Alto Weekly and Verde Magazine — was faced with the harrowing choice of whether or not to come forward with the complaints that Winston had played a direct role in cultivating a “sexually hostile environment” at Palo Alto High School. On one hand, Diorio was concerned for women and girls on campus, and wanted to confront the hostile environment. On the other hand, she feared retaliation against both her and her colleagues. Not only was Winston her direct superior, but the misogynistic environment she saw at Paly was prominent at the District Office in the form of, as one staff member put it, a “good ole’ boys club,” according to redacted documents published by the Palo Alto Weekly. To her knowledge, Diorio had no obligation to report the complaints, she wrote in her letter to Bowers. Even so, she felt a duty to take action. She grappled with the idea of confronting Winston directly, but ultimately decided not to, afraid of making the situation worse. Instead, she scheduled a confidential meeting with Palo Alto Unified School District’s Title IX coordinator at the time, Charles Young. Young’s job was to deal with everything related to Title IX, a federal education law that states that no person should be discriminated against on the basis of gender.