November 25, 2024
Black Beverly Hills High School Students Address Racism After MAGA Mob Following Trump’s Election Win
'One of my students said they looked like the KKK.'
Black students and a teacher at Beverly Hills High School are reeling after a MAGA mob stormed the hallways on Election Day in support of now President-elect Donald Trump, Fox 11 reports.
“It was just a mob of kids,” fashion teacher Bella Ivory explained. “So many kids outside my door. One of them had a Trump flag on a pole, some of them had on MAGA hats. Some just had Trump apparel.
“They looked so frightened,” Ivory added. “I said I’m not going to open the door, and one of my students said they looked like the KKK.”
During a school board meeting, Ivory and some students addressed some of the concerns involving a number of racial intimidation tactics used on campus.
A senior student named Jurnee said racism became “utterly impossible” to ignore the week of the election.
“From 8:30 to 2:30, all week, being in school felt like a nightmare. What the Black students and Miss Bella had to deal with that week had nothing to do with politics,” she said. “That week, [being] stormed, being called the N-word…Being shunned, all because you were Black became the normal.”
Another student named Alexander shared how he has seen “slurs scrawled across the walls of our bathrooms” along with hateful and “violent rhetoric used toward Miss Bella and our club.”
The Beverly Hills Unified School District said, “We remain deeply committed to upholding a secure and conscientious setting where students can responsibly and considerately engage in the democratic process.”
However, the district is investigating the racist claims, including alleged evidence of a cell phone from a student posted on social media. In the recording, Ivory can allegedly be heard saying, “If anything happens to me at this school, my family will come for your families. If anything happens to my son, I will come for your families.”
Ivory, who has yet to return to class, claims the alleged recording was edited and says her message wasn’t a threat but was essential, “saying my family is going to come after [any] family that hurts me, kills me whatever, legally, not physically.”
According to Beverly Press, Joanie Garratt, who became a substitute teacher after entering retirement, was terminated on Nov. 13 for expressing being “disheartened” by the acts of the mob, which “specifically targeted the class where the Black Student Union was meeting.”
“Some students arrived at school truly upset and even crying only to be bullied later by their classmates,” Garratt wrote. “And don’t blame the administration for this. They are dealing with it. This comes from their leader, His Majesty, King.”
Principal Drew Stewart said such events would be prohibited in the future.“Students may not assemble, create moving mobs or form circles to shout, jump and physically contact others,” the memo read.