On March 25, 2025, English and journalism teacher Eric Gustafson was told without warning that he would be removed from his position as adviser to The Lowell magazine, which he had held since 2017. The meeting with Principal Jan Bautista was a surprise to Gustafson and ended in a matter of minutes. It was clear to Gustafson that the administration’s decision was final. “I left that meeting in a state of shock. I didn’t really know what was going to happen. Basically, I had gotten fired,” Gustafson said.
According to Gustafson, Lowell administrators told him that the reassignment was due to his handling of a story titled “Invasive and Inappropriate“ published by The Lowell in October 2024 about student experiences of verbal harassment from teachers at Lowell, as well as a proposed story about teachers’ use of AI in the classroom that was not published. As an adviser at The Lowell, Gustafson could make suggestions, consult on stories, and edit pieces before they were published, but final decisions about what stories are published were made solely by the team of student editors.
After the initial publication of “Invasive and Inappropriate,” and before Gustafson’s reassignment, the Lowell administration had called Gustafson to a meeting along with The Lowell’s Editors-in-Chief at the time. In this meeting, the administration laid out grievances about the article, which included the claim that teachers, though unnamed in the article, were identifiable by students, and requested to review sensitive articles from The Lowell before they were published. The Editors-in-Chief denied this request.
Gustafson argued that the nature of his reassignment was unlawful, and quickly got in contact with legal professionals at both the Student Press Law Center and the First Amendment Coalition. They pointed him to Section G of the California Education Code 48907, which protects student journalist’s first amendment rights and the rights of their advisers. The law states that student journalism advisers “shall not be dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against” for refusing to allow prior restraint of a student publication, or for the content of a student publication.
In court, Gustafson and his legal council, which was provided by the teacher’s union, argued that he had been illegally reassigned under this section of the education code. The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), argued that The Lowell had not met professional journalistic standards, which gave them cause to reassign Gustafson. When asked about Gustafson’s removal, the SFUSD Communications Office provided a statement that they “remain fully committed to continuing to provide students with high-quality journalism instruction,” and that “it is not [our] practice to discuss personnel matters.” Members of the English department, including Stephanie Crabtree, one of the department heads, gave depositions about concerns with content published in The Lowell as well as other concerns about Gustafson’s leadership. Crabtree and other members of the Lowell English Department declined to comment. According to the ruling, SFUSD claimed that the reassignment was part of regular rescheduling, and that its purpose was to substitute Gustafson with a teacher who had more experience in journalism and teaching. When asked in court to elaborate on the new adviser’s further qualifications, the district could not.
Gustafson had originally hoped to be reinstated by a court as the journalism adviser by the fall semester of the 2025-2026 year, but the legal process took longer than expected. In December of 2025, a Supreme Court judge in San Francisco made a preliminary ruling. At the end of January, the judge issued a final ruling, which concluded that the Lowell administration had reassigned Gustafson in order to “impact the editorial content of The Lowell in a way that they could not accomplish directly,” and mandated Gustafson’s reinstatement as the journalism teacher at Lowell within 30 days. Negotiations between Lowell and Gustafson’s legal teams culminated in an agreement that Gustafson would be reinstated in the fall of the 2026-2027 school year, so as to not disrupt his current English classes.
In a statement, the Lowell Principal Jan Bautista declined to comment on the outcome of the case, but said,“We are using this moment to grow our understanding of the importance of the need for instructional guidance in journalism courses and the state standards to be addressed in these courses.”
Gustafson thinks that this court case is about more than his position as a journalism teacher. He believes that his reassignment was part of a “pattern of intimidation” for the Lowell administration to have more control over what is published in The Lowell. Ultimately, he said, Gustafson’s main priority is uplifting and protecting student journalists’ voices and rights. According to Gustafson, this case is a legal victory for students. “This case wasn’t about me being a better journalism adviser than others,” he said, “It was me just standing up for [student journalists]. It’s really my job.”
