Black students at Beverly Hills High School (BHHS) allege that they were harassed, intimidated and subjected to racial epithets during a pro-Trump rally on campus on Nov. 5. Dozens of BHHS students held a boisterous lunchtime rally that day in support of Trump. Video of the rally shows students cheering and moving through a common area of the school. Many of them wore red “Make America Great Again” hats; others carried or wrapped themselves in Trump banners or hoisted flags on poles. At one point, students cheered as a school security guard held up a Trump flag. Videos of the event were widely disseminated on social media.
After the rally, BHHS Principal Drew Stewart indicated that going forward, students would not be allowed to “create moving mobs or form circles for the purpose of shouting, jumping and physically contacting others.”
While accounts of the rally appeared in news reports last week, another aspect of the campus gathering came to light at the Nov. 12 Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) Board of Trustees meeting. As recounted by seven students and BHHS teacher Bella Ivory, some rally participants moved through a school hallway and began to scream profanities and racial slurs outside Ivory’s classroom. The classroom was at the time occupied by Ivory and several students. Ivory teaches classes in fashion and is the faculty sponsor of the Black Student Union.
One student told the board that she was in Ivory’s classroom when a video of the rally was sent to them. Not long afterward, she heard loud banging sounds outside the classroom. Then, she heard the rallying students begin shouting “words of profanity and hate.” Of the experience, she said, “I’ve never felt this scared at school and in fear of my life.”
Several students told the board that they feared for their safety and pleaded with Ivory not to let the demonstrators gain access to the classroom when the door began to rattle.
“Although I was aware of the pure hatred and racism in my time being here, it was never expressed in the way that it was last week,” another student told the board.
“We just heard loud voices outside of my door screaming f*** Kamala,’” Ivory told
the Courier. Videos taken of the event show about a dozen students marching through the school hallways and chanting. The kids were “screaming profanities and slurs and just different things through the door,” said Ivory. She added, “The ‘n’ word was being said. It was pretty bad, it was pretty bad.”
Ivory described being surprised as to why the protest had been allowed to get out of hand, and wondered to herself, “Where is admin?” She asked an assistant principal, “Did you guys know about this? Was this something approved?” The response was “no.”
Ivory later tried to set the record straight after local media reports failed to describe the total picture of what transpired at the rally. Ivory left an online comment on an ABC7 piece describing the event. After that, she told the Courier that she was “attacked by Beverly Hills parents for speaking my truth,” describing angry messages left on social media.
Some of the students emphasized at the board meeting that racism was not limited to the rally on Election Day. One student described seeing racial epithets on bathroom walls. Another said, “Throughout all my years being in this school, it’s been nonstop racist, racist things happening. And I’ve had numerous conversations with multiple staff members and admins throughout my years being here. And nothing’s really happened.”
After the students spoke, Stewart noted, “Tonight we heard from students who have concerns, and I’m very grateful to them for coming and speaking this evening. We want all of our students to feel comfortable enough to let us know when something isn’t right in their experience at our school.”
In a statement after the Nov. 12 board meeting, BHUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Bregy told the Courier, “We sincerely appreciate all of the speakers who contributed this evening. Alongside my colleagues, I take all concerns regarding hate speech and safety extremely seriously and we are actively addressing these through regular meetings with our students.
As we heard during public comment, our community includes individuals with varying perspectives, and we are listening to all voices as we continue to navigate this important dialogue.”
