The Shame of Pacifica High School

This is definitely not the way you’d like to see your alma mater make the front page of the LA Times:

When this story first broke a few days ago, I held out a brief hope that it was about the Pacifica High School in Oxnard. No such luck. And since then it’s just gotten worse. The story has exploded worldwide and the latest news is that “several other videos showing students engaged in hate speech have surfaced.”

On the bright side, that building in the picture is Pacifica’s brand new theater, now the second largest in the Garden Grove Unified School District. Doesn’t it look nice?

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Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

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