Zach Luce tells his Cole Valley story

Topics include money and corruption, depression, a false learning disability, gay-hating, and bullying

I published a blog post recently reflecting on my Cole Valley experience and why I have such negative feelings about it. Since then, a support group has started, there’s a dedicated website, a joint statement has been published, and we delivered it to Cole Valley in our first meeting. We’ve visited Cole Valley twice (1st and 2nd), and they just acknowledged us for the first time in a dismissive email to all Cole Valley families.

Zach was a past student (Class of 2010), and he wanted to tell his story for the benefit of anyone that wants to listen.

This is the uncut conversation. Below are hyperlinks to highlights if you don’t want to watch it in full.

• Context of the Cole Valley Speaks movement (0:00)
• Zach’s reaction to the movement when he first heard about it (5:44)
• A friend that went to Cole Valley, 10 years older than Zach, said the blog matched what he experienced. We have 20 years of students reporting the same things. (7:33)
• Zach felt very unprepared for college, particularly about science and evolution (9:15)
• The school kept telling Zach he wasn’t smart, he was “slow,” and he had a learning disability. He eventually gave up telling them they were wrong and started to believe it. It wasn’t until college that he realized he could do well academically. (12:28)
• Basketball was huge for Zach. Before tryouts, his senior year, the coach told him not even to try — that he wouldn’t make the team. From what his mom gathered from investigating, a family made a big donation on the condition that their son made the team. He took Zach’s spot. (17:05)
• Zach dealt with depression in junior high and high school. He was about to kill himself, but the school nurse saved him. (20:45)
• Zach didn’t have to do half of the homework assignments in some classes because he was on the basketball team (25:50)
• Zach feels terrible about the intense gay-hating culture at Cole Valley that he was a part of (28:25)
• The administration over-reacted, incredibly, to the 2009 senior prank, which was harmless. They threatened to take their diplomas away. (33:00)
• There was a culture of “our way or the highway.” That lead to fear, falling in line, and not thinking critically. (36:06)
• Bullying was really bad. One kid was being bullied mercilessly, and Zach and another friend tried to stop the bully for weeks. Teachers and administration didn’t do anything. (38:55)
• One time Zach was being bullied so bad that he snapped, and a bunch of kids were egging him on to beat him up. Teachers heard and did nothing. It was a rich kid (the same one as the basketball story). (41:48)
• Zach got suspended once for something he didn’t do. His reputation as a “bad kid” made them not listen to him. That’s when the depression started. (44:00)
• Zach’s message the Cole Valley administration and parents — pay more attention to your kids (48:35)
• Zach’s message to current students — stick together and stand up for each other (51:15)