Journalism instructor remains unshakeable Despite facing backlash, Adriana Chavira continues to teach

BY CHRISTIAN CASTELLANOS Reporter

Bold, supportive—a few words that best describe the way former students felt when they spoke of their high school teacher Adriana Chavira.

But she didn't always feel that way about herself.

Chavira’s experiences as a student journalist in high school was one of the many reasons that led to her breaking out of her timid shell.

“I'm very shy, and so just having to force my way to get out of that, out of my comfort zone while doing interviews, definitely helped me as well,” Chavira recalled.

Today, Chavira is a journalism teacher at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

In September, the district almost suspended her when she refused to censor an article her students wrote about faculty and staff who didn’t comply with LAUSD’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Sitting for an interview at a local coffee shop on a quiet Wednesday afternoon, beverage in hand, she begins to recount moments in her life that led up to the present.

An LA native, Chavira spent her childhood with LAUSD, moving from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley, where she graduated from John H. Francis Polytechnic High School. She went to school at the California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a minor in Chicano Studies. Chavira would later go on to continue her education again at CSUN, where she received her Master’s degree in English. All the while being a part of her school newspaper and working at a movie theater.

The journalist spirit has been with Chavira since childhood. Her household was a constant flow of news and politics thanks to her father, who would bring home a daily copy of the LA-based Spanish newspaper La Opinión.

“My sister and I learned to read Spanish using La Opinión. We learned how to read and write from that, we'd always watch the 4 o'clock news on Channel 7, then the 6 o'clock news on Channel 34,” Chavira said. “Staying up-to-date with the news and the impact it had was always big in my household since I was in elementary school and so from that, I just kind of got interested.”

As a reporter, Chavira worked for the Whittier Daily News, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the Desert Sun in Palm Springs and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside. Chavira mentioned she enjoys features about people and shared a story about meeting her literary idol.

“I covered an event with Chilean writer Isabel Allende,” Chavira said. “Early on in my career, I covered a lot of Latino issues or Latino events and that kind of stuff because I was often the only person of color in the newsroom or bilingual person as well, and so there was an event where she was speaking at a luncheon for one of the school districts in the Whittier area. That was a great opportunity, just to see someone that I really admired.”

Chavira also covered news about city government which she called “very dry” and has experience with police reporting which according to her, “is a good way to hone your reporting and writing skills.”

Chavira’s LA roots however, were calling her back home.

“My career was kind of at a standstill I guess for lack of a better word, and I missed being in LA and I wanted to come back to LA,” Chavira said. “At that time, I didn't see myself getting into the Los Angeles Times or being hired by them, and I just decided to... I was kind of unhappy with journalism for a variety of reasons, and so I just decided to switch careers.”

At the time, LAUSD started a program for people looking to switch careers, Chavira said. She joined the six-week training “bootcamp” program, as she put it, on how to teach and how to deliver lessons. After passing the program, Chavira was hired at Garfield High School in East LA to teach English and spent five years there before moving to Birmingham High School, and ultimately joining Daniel Pearl Magnet School where she has been for the past 14 years.

[See Chavira on pg. 3]

Location: Performing Arts Building

EDITORIAL: From the desk of the Roundup