Nathaniel Yu v. San Ramon Valley Unified School District et al.
United States District Court Northern District of California, San Francisco Division Federal Case No. 3:17-cv-03906-MMC
Nathaniel Yu’s case against San Ramon Valley High School
In 2017, Nathaniel Yu was a Junior in San Ramon Valley High School. He ran for Associate Student Body (ASB) President, the highest elected leadership position representing the school. School employees and District representatives punished him for a James Bond parody video that he and his friends participated in, which never referenced the school or specific individuals, was filmed off-campus on a weekend and without school resources.
Despite the fact that the school allowed and continues to allow for the creation of similar videos by other students, they nonetheless decided to punish Nathaniel. Their punishment included removing him from the leadership class, stripping him of his then elected position as Junior class president and disqualifying him from the ASB election.
District employees and other community members decided to mischaracterize the video as a racial discrimination video rather than see the video as the students intended it to be portrayed – an entertaining and funny video where a hero saves his friend from antagonists. Discovery documents produced by District officials would later confirm that they never perceived the video to be discriminatory or threatening.
Unfortunately, it was too late. Teachers, community members, and some students collectively continued to promote their false narrative of the video even though many of them had never viewed it. As a result, Nathaniel Yu’s reputation was impugned on social media, he received threats of violence, and certain school teachers retaliated against him. Nathaniel and his family pursued this lawsuit to:
- Seek vindication by establishing that constitutional and educational code violations were committed by school and District employees.
- Hold Defendants accountable for their unjust punishment of Nathaniel Yu. Defendants knew early on that their actions were unwarranted.
- Protect current as well as future students and their families from being subjected to the egregious conduct that Nathaniel endured at the hands of school and District employees.