A former Mountain View High School student is suing the Mountain View Los Altos High School District, alleging that administrators failed to address years of racist harassment and a fabricated yearbook quote printed under his name. Amir Ware says he brought his concerns to Principal Kip Glazer and Superintendent Eric Volta, but the district did not publicly acknowledge the incident or investigate his complaints.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court on Tuesday, accuses the district of racial discrimination, negligent supervision, and infliction of emotional distress, according to the Palo Alto Daily Post. Court records reviewed by PacerMonitor show the case was docketed as 5:26-cv-11511 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, with claims brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 against the district, Glazer, and Volta.
A Freshman Year Cut Short
Ware attended Mountain View High School for one week during his sophomore year before switching to independent study, he said, after racist comments from peers became too much. He said he experienced similar treatment as a junior, then returned for one semester as a senior during the 2024-25 school year before going back to independent study for his final term, per the Daily Post’s reporting.
During that time, Ware said he was one of only five Black players on the football team. That isolation tracks with district-wide demographics: Black or African American students made up just 1.1% of the roughly 4,406 students enrolled across the Mountain View Los Altos High School District in the 2023-2024 school year, while at Mountain View High School specifically, Black students accounted for about 2% of the school’s 2,196 students as of August 2023, according to Mountain View High School…