Daniel Pearl’s family backs journalism advisor facing suspension at school named after him: ‘Reconsider this decision’

Journalism advisor Adriana Chavira faces suspension for a 2021 story in the school newspaper about vaccines

The family of murdered international correspondent Daniel Pearl has come out in support of a journalism advisor at the Los Angeles school that bears his name amid her potential suspension after a controversy over press censorship.

Longtime journalist and advisor Adriana Chavira, who has been teaching at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School for 13 years, is in the line of fire after the school paper, the Pearl Post, published a story last year about the Los Angeles Unified School District’s vaccine mandate.

The story reported that a teacher-librarian had opted out of vaccination, resulting in the closure of their school library and named the person, according to a Los Angeles Press Club release. The librarian asked for the name to be removed, but Ms Chavira backed her students; school administrators gave her an unpaid suspension when she refused to remove the name, the release continued.

“I admire Adriana and all she’s done to inspire her students,” Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl and President of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, said in the statement. “She’s a wonderful teacher and journalism advisor, as demonstrated by the award-winning reporting done under her mentorship. She has been instrumental in these achievements. I don’t want her to face any disciplinary action for allowing her students to tell the truth. I only want what’s best for the students and the school, which is why I hope they will reconsider this decision.”

LA Press Club also expressed its support of Ms Chavira, who was a newspaper reporter for a decade before she began working at the school.

“There’s always room for a discussion about privacy and the responsibilities of journalists, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening,” said Adam Rose, press rights chair for the Los Angeles Press Club. “Suspending the journalism advisor doesn’t make the story untrue. Censorship doesn’t bring less attention to the original reporting. The only lesson here is that you can’t unring a bell.”

Daniel Pearl was working as the South Asia burea chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was kidnapped and later beheaded in Pakistan in 2002. The Daniel Pearl Magnet High School was established in 2009 in Los Angeles, where Mr Pearl grew up.