Two Black teachers at Beverly Hills High School in California filed a formal complaint with the school district alleging harassment and racial discrimination, including claims that Black students and teachers are regularly subjected to racist slurs, threatening comments and disparate treatment.
The complaint was filed on Dec. 9 with the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) by Los Angeles attorney Brad Gage on behalf of Bella Ivory, who teaches fashion design, and an unnamed Black teacher who also coaches at the high school, where about 3 percent of its approximately 400 students are Black.
The teachers allege the school administration has done nothing to stop blatant acts of racism in the school in recent years, including Black students “consistently being called the N-word face to face” by white students and then facing no consequences.
Other recent racially charged incidents have made Black students at the school “feel attacked and afraid,” Gage told Atlanta Black Star.
On Nov. 6, the day after the presidential election, students marched through the halls of the school carrying Trump flags, some wearing red MAGA hats and shouting “F—k Kamala.” They congregated in front of a classroom where the Black Student Union meeting was being led by Ivory.
One of the white students allegedly tried to open the door, “causing fear and apprehension,” according to the complaint. The seven Black students present “said they felt it was like the KKK trying to break into their meeting.”
The following week, at least five Black students spoke at a school board meeting to relate that they felt shunned and threatened, had been called the N-word, “and how it was a nightmare to be a Black student at Beverly Hills High School.”
They also recounted hearing and seeing racial comments and slurs being uttered and scrawled on doors and walls, including a Nazi swastika drawn onto a cutting table in Ivory’s classroom.
Among the indignities they described was a video posted to social media on April 22, when two female students from Beverly Hills High posted a “PSA” about problems in the school cafeteria. It began showing the empty cafeteria and one girl commenting, “Let’s take a minute to appreciate how nice, beautiful, and clean our cafeteria looks right now. Now let’s fast-forward to lunch,” one of the girls says. The video then cuts to a group of Black students eating in the cafeteria. The girls reappear and say, “This is disgusting … I’m repulsed.”
The video “zooming in on Black students eating making the place ‘disgusting’ perpetrates racial stereotypes and prejudices harking back to Apartheid and ‘separate but equal,’” the complaint says.
Earlier this year, the N-word was drawn on a wall in the boys’ physical education locker room, the complaint says. Within the past two weeks, another racist video appeared on TikTok, this one showing a pile of excrement on the boys’ restroom floor and then a shot of the words, “I hate ni—ers” scrawled and underlined on the wall. It is unclear who made the video, said Gage, but it was widely shared among students at the school.
The complaint also claims that the anonymous Black teacher-coach complainant “has not received full pay for the coaching work he has performed” and that athletic director Tim Ellis “often used the N-word at the school and in front of teachers/coaches.”
It alleges Ellis has taken money raised by fundraisers to pay white teacher-coaches while depriving their Black counterparts of such pay. Black basketball players were also deprived of the benefits of money raised for them, the complaint alleges.
In response to the complaint filed by the two Black teachers, the school district said it has not found evidence of racism, reported the BeverlyPress.
“We do not have evidence that suggests that there was racism at the recent spirited demonstrations, however BHUSD has implemented proactive measures to ensure that any concerns related to racism and antisemitism – perceived or real – are addressed promptly and effectively,” BHUSD Superintendent Michael Bregy said in a statement.
Bregy added that the school district is meeting with organizations, including the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League, “to deliver professional development for staff, workshops for students, and community engagement sessions.”
“These initiatives will focus on empathy, active listening and fostering dialogue among diverse viewpoints,” Bregy wrote.
The statement also noted that the school district is continuing to review policies and protocols that address discrimination and facilitating conversations to “educate students on the balance between free speech and respect for others.”
“The district remains focused on ensuring that our schools remain spaces of learning, growth and mutual respect,” the statement continued. “Allegations stemming from external events, such as political demonstrations, are taken seriously and assessed within the context of our commitment to student safety and community harmony. BHUSD recognizes that incidents of this nature can heighten tensions, which is why we are unwavering in our efforts to engage students, families and community members in solutions that uphold our core values. We believe this proactive approach not only addresses immediate concerns but also builds a foundation for long-term inclusivity and unity.”
BHUSD Board President Dr. Amanda Stern supported the school district’s position.
“Any incident of hate or racism is not just ‘unacceptable,’ it is atrocious and must be addressed,” Stern said in a statement. “While I am not on campus for day-to-day operations, every reported incident including ones that I myself have forwarded for investigation to the appropriate parties has been thoroughly investigated. Some incidents have indeed yielded discipline referrals – not unlike many middle and high schools in L.A. County. Others simply have not been substantiated by available data including extensive student and staff interviews. The boisterous students who appeared to spontaneously celebrate the election win were exercising their freedoms. By many accounts, they simply were spirited juveniles with ZERO intent to harm. The district takes student well-being and safety very seriously. Claims will continue to be investigated, should they arise, and students will always be heard and supported.”
The school district has 45 days to officially respond to the teachers’ complaint. If they reject it, Ivory and the other teacher have six months to file a lawsuit, which Gage says is bound to happen, given the school district’s public comments.
“I think the lawsuit is inevitable because the school disavows anything is happening, despite student after student saying it is,” he said. “It’s not one Black student reporting these slurs and bullying incidents. It’s all of them.”
Gage says he has interviewed at least 10 Black students and four Black teachers who report being called the N-word or other racial slurs, being threatened because of their race, and “some who have faced physical violence, including Black students being taunted and jumped” by two or more white students.
“The problem is, when the Black kids fight back, they get severely punished for it, and the white kids get nothing,” he said. “The school protects those doing the victimizing, and it’s just breeding more problems.”
Of the school officials dismissing the group of students gathered outside Ivory’s classroom as “boisterous” juveniles simply celebrating, Gage said, “What makes it racist is the fact that they only went to one room and knocked on only one door, and that was where they knew the Black Student Union was meeting with the only female black teacher in the entire high school. OK, so I think that shows targeting, too. You know, when you’re looking at racism and discrimination.”
Gage said the district’s plans to engage in exercises “talking about different races and cultures and ways to coexist, that’s obviously a good thing. But it strikes me as too little, too late. I’m in the NAACP, so I know the guys that they’re meeting with, I talked with them, too. And the school still denies there’s any racism. So unless you say, ‘Yes, we have a problem, and now we’re going to address it,’ it’s all lip service.”
Since her government claim was filed against the school and announced in a press conference in front of the school, Ivory has been put on paid administrative leave, and the district informed her it was conducting an investigation into her conduct.
“We consider those actions retaliatory,” said Gage, who has served as co-counsel on several lawsuits with famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump, including a current $500 million class action case alleging racial profiling by the Beverly Hills Police Department.
Gage said he believed the focus of the district’s investigation was related to an “illegally obtained” audio recording made and posted by a student, including comments Ivory made in a classroom, where she can be heard saying, “If anything happens to my son, I will come for your families.”
Ivory later said she wasn’t making threats but sharing her feelings with students, reported FoxLA. She claimed the audio was edited and didn’t capture the intent of her message, which was that “my family is going to come after any family that hurts me, kills me, whatever — legally, not physically.”
Gage said that Ivory recently pulled her son out of Beverly Hills Middle School after he was called racial slurs by students, including the N-word.
The next step for Ivory will be an interview with school district officials as part of their investigation, he said.
