BUZZ
Long-term substitute claims First Amendment rights were violated
A veteran teacher is suing the Beverly Hills Unified School District for “millions” after it terminated her allegedly for blaming student bullying on Donald Trump.
As noted by The College Fix shortly after the 2024 election, a black teacher at Beverly Hills High School claimed a “boisterous” crowd of students marched through the halls on Election Day “harassing” and “intimidating” their peers.
Black students also alleged they were “subjected to racial epithets” during a lunch-period pro-Trump rally by students in MAGA hats and “wrapped” in Trump banners.
A black YouTuber had wondered why, in this age of everyone having a smart phone, there was no video/audio/photographic evidence of the black students’ allegations, including racial epithets scrawled on bathroom walls.
Another teacher, long-term AP History substitute teacher Joanie Garratt, had written in a Facebook post that she was “disheartened” by the pro-Trump rally, that pro-Trump students “harassed and intimidated many other non-MAGA students” and “specifically targeted the class where the Black Student Union was meeting, yelling all kinds of racial slurs.”
She also wrote she was “ashamed to be an American,” that supporters of the president “worship a fascist,” and that “some Jews had ‘aligned with the devil'” by supporting Trump, according to a Los Angeles Times report. (Garratt is Jewish.)
Garratt concluded the post with “This comes from their leader, His Majesty, King.”
A 30-year veteran teacher, Garratt said that after making the post she got a call “from one of the school district’s assistant superintendents” informing her she was fired.
Garratt said she believed “many other teachers fear[ed] retaliation for criticizing the president-elect and his supporters online.”
After her dismissal, she posted on Facebook that she considered her termination a “badge of honor.”
District policy states that “an employee’s personal beliefs and activities, including religious, political, cultural, social or other beliefs or activities, or lack thereof, shall not be grounds for disciplinary action against the employee, provided that the beliefs or activities do not violate law, board policy or administrative regulation.”
In the lawsuit filed August 17, Garratt claims the district violated her First Amendment rights and the California Labor Code, the Times reports.
According to the International Business Times, although “a precise figure has not been disclosed in the filings reported so far,” Garratt’s claim “has been widely described as running into the millions” — which includes “compensation for lost wages, emotional harm and potential future earnings.”
Garratt claimed she had suffered “panic attacks, persistent nausea, trembling hands, sleepless nights, rapid weight loss, humiliation” and “‘irreparable harm’ to her reputation.”
Garratt’s lawyer, V. James DeSimone, said “Joanie was a beloved, trusted teacher” and that “everybody says how great she was. It’s the students who really lost out here.”
DeSimone’s office did not respond to a pair of requests for comment from The College Fix.
The IBT notes “What remains unclear from the available documents is exactly how visible Garratt’s post was to students and parents, and whether the district will argue that her language crossed into unprofessional conduct under its code of ethics.”
MORE: Black teacher, students allege pro-Trump ‘harassment, racism’ — but have no evidence
