Multiple Sources Allege Widespread Discrimination at Beverly Hills High School
AWCN found dozens of sources including letters, students, parents, faculty, videos produced by the school and social media which allege or show a concerning level of bullying and an unsafe environment
In the wake of war in Gaza, multiple students and Muslim organizations allege the atmosphere at Beverly Hills High School is hostile towards Palestinian and Muslims.
School-produced videos or social media show unrepentant calls for violence against Palestinians. Several sources allege that Beverly Hills High School (BHHS) students in hallways discussed plans to attend a violent mass assault on a pro-Palestinian encampment at nearby UCLA. At least one student was audibly booed and video taken by students show several students being audibly booed at BHHS’ graduation. The local chapter for the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA), a Muslim civil rights organization, told AWCN that “we’ve heard directly from Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students and their families, who feel routinely ostracized and silenced.”
AWCN was able to locate more than a dozen sources which claim discrimination or abuse. Some documentation was obtained via records request. Others spoke in detail to AWCN. Much of it was documented on social media by students as well as BHUSD’s own television channel.
Editor’s Note: because most students described in this piece were high school students at the time, and many were under the age of 18 ACWN has elected not to publish names of any students described or who functioned as sources with the exception of those who were arrested and publicly profiled by national news outlets. Many of the people interviewed for the piece did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal during their education or for fear of reprisal from administration officials.
On October 7th, 2023 Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups carried out an attack on Israel which took around 240 hostages and killed around 1,200 people. Israeli government spokespeople have stated around 70% were civilians.
Since October 7th Israel’s military response has affected civilians living in Gaza in large numbers. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, stated in May that more than half killed by Israel have been civilians, and put the death toll at 30,000. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, states that more than 34,000 people were killed as of May 4th. On August 10th, the Gaza Health Ministry stated the toll is 39,700. There is no true independent source for the death toll and even the 39,700 number has been said by some sources to be an undercount.
The International Criminal Court has accused both Hamas and Israel for war crimes and have considered an issue of arrest warrants for Hamas leaders as well as Benjamin Netanyahu.
Dr. Michael Bregy, Superintendent for the Beverly Hills Unified School District, (BHUSD) was selected by the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles for a trip to Israel. Dr. Bregy wrote in an announcement on his Instagram page that “I am filled with gratitude for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I cannot wait to embark on this remarkable adventure. Thank you to the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles for this incredible honor!” Multiple parties including CAIR-LA criticized this in letters. A parent said to AWCN that it was unconscionable for him to go until there was a cease fire in place, and questioned if Bregy would be willing to discuss Palestine after.
SOURCE: BHUSD via records request (edited by AWCN to remove name of sender)
A form letter sent to BHUSD administrators
In the wake of October 7th and the subsequent war, some students and faculty at the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) are accused of directing their anger at Palestinian and Arab students. ACWN obtained via a records request to BHUSD at least nine letters from a template provided by CAIR-LA. The letter named several actions by staff and stated that BHUSD had contributed “toward a hostile environment that emboldens the anti-Palestinian, xenophobic, and anti-Islamic sentiments that already exist…” Several of them appear to have the same names as parents of children attending schools within BHUSD at the time.
Though there were nine contained in records requests, it appears as though there was mention of at least one other letter sent to the school district. BHUSD’s only email communications internally on the matter that AWCN were able to find was a forwarding over one email to Superintendent Dr. Michael Bregy. The email says “I am forwarding only because he discusses you quite a bit so you know what he’s saying. Sorry.”
In April of 2024, students and demonstrators erected a pro-Palestine encampment at UCLA. Multiple Beverly Hills High School students were involved in sexual harassment or violence towards pro-Palestine demonstrators.
On April 24, a group of BHHS students joined a pro-Israel counterprotest. Several harassed a videographer while there. Others walked around the encampment tearing posters. The group exclaimed “fuck Palestine,” when asked why they were there. One in the group yelled “show us your penises,” in a transphobic rant. Another spat on a legal observer as the group circled around the camp tearing off pro-Palestinian posters.
At least one BHHS student was accused of being present during the violent assault on pro-Palestine encampment on April 30th. Multiple student sources told ACWN that they’d heard people in the hallways discussing plans to attend the attacks beforehand. CNN reported that encampment organizers reported “25 protesters ended up being transported to local emergency rooms to receive treatment for injuries including fractures, severe lacerations and chemical-induced injuries.”
Present during the attacks was 18-year old Edan On, wearing a white mask. On lashed at protesters multiple times with a large pole, and was one of the most visibly violent in the group. Multiple sources including On’s mother and verified by footage comparison show he was probably one at least a dozen. Echoing concerns of CAIR, On’s mother claimed in Hebrew on social media that On was there to “bully,” the encampment.
On was arrested on suspicion of Assault With a Deadly Weapon. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute. District Attorney George Gascon said in a press release that they “cannot establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. On’s conduct directly caused the victim’s injury.” He followed to state that they had at the time “no evidence to suggest that Mr. On was working in collaboration with any other individuals; and our investigation found no proof of conspiracy or any organized effort by Mr. On related to the incident.”
KBEV is the school district’s channel. Videos can be seen on youtube and are also broadcast via cable to more than 100,000 homes. Most of the videos are co-produced by students being supervised by teachers and administrators in the school.
On October 12th, 2023 a video was released by KBEV contains interviews with students about the October 7th attacks. A montage within includes social media videos about the attacks. Much of the video shows heartfelt concerns from students who have family in Israel and condemnations of the attack. There are also moments that show anger directed at Palestinians.
Lebanese-born pornography actress Mia Khalifa is shown with the caption “gets blasted over supporting Palestine amid attacks on Israel.” A video posted by Instagram account blackandjewishunity purports to show children locked up in cages meant for chickens on October 7th; the video’s origin was taken before then and fact-checking website Snopes claims it was intended comedic and was taken by the children’s relatives.
The same video shows a female BHHS student first saying that she saw videos of IDF soldiers playing with Palestinian children, then says “but the fact that the Palestine soldiers are doing this, and it just goes to show you how they are.” The Israeli National Anthem plays in the background of much of the video. A group of male students, who also appear within another school-produced video making questionable comments about Palestinians, rant. One boy says “wipe these Nazis off the map. I don’t want to see a single soul.”
A week later, many of those same students participated in another video produced on KBEV called “Teen Talk Israeli Palestine Conflict Pt. 2.” ACWN has been unable to locate the first video. 12 students are in the video; one is draped in a Donald Trump flag and various pro-Israeli signs. It opens with several of the students acknowledging that they’d gotten “controversial comments,” in the first and promising that they’d “address some.” Another student promises to “add more.” Several students in the video state that “Palestine is not a place.” One student seemingly calls the Black Lives Matter movement a “catastrophe.”
The kids also state in their video they were forced to take Mezuzahs off of their lockers and the school administration supports Hamas.
Another “Teen Talk” video includes a “10 week staff evaluation.” Seemingly recognizing that one student has a propensity for strong language, he claims he’d been called “outrageous and obnoxious,” by an administrative official ahead of a “unity vigil,” for Israel at the school. Another student then says “your day is coming,” directly to the camera. The video has several bleeps in its audio tracks as a student speaks. The video ends with several students saying they feel administrative officials are racist towards Persians.
An IDF Reservist Speaks During School Hours
Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Reservist Eli Wininger spoke on May 16th at BHHS as a guest speaker at least partially during class hours. Wininger’s speech was recorded live on KBEV 6. Cataloging his time as an IDF soldier, pictures of his time in Gaza are shown. Showing pictures of Hamas operatives and buildings, he then switched to saying that his new “front line” is in the US and displays pictures of a Palestinian protest. A title card reads “be proud to be Jewish and speak up because we are losing this battle and it determines the Israel’s future and western values.”
Some sources claim Wininger actually made multiple trips to BHHS but AWCN was not able to independently verify these claims.
Dina Chehata, who works as the Civil Rights Managing Attorney for CAIR-LA, said of Wininger’s presence “It is unthinkable that our public schools are hosting military personnel from a country that is committing documented war crimes against Palestinians…” They then went on to ask in a statement “What is a Palestinian student supposed to feel when military representatives of this country, the same country that is annihilating and brutalizing their people, is invited to speak to the student body with impunity?”
Though the initial time for the speech was during lunch hours in BHHS’ John Cherney Hall at one point during the speech a school bell rings. A student wearing an IDF sweatshirt tells those present that the Principal will excuse their tardiness if they sign in. Dr. Michael Bregy, the BHUSD Superintendent, was also present and took photos with Wininger and student’s from BHHS’ Israel Club and Jewish Club.
A Student Is Booed At Graduation
After graduation, a student shouted at two female students “on my dead homies, fuck…” before the language is inaudible and posted it to his social media.
Another student at the commencement was audibly booed while being led up to retrieve her high school diploma. At least one student filmed herself booing another student receiving her diploma with the crowd, laughing and captioning it.
As both Jewish students and Arab/Palestinian students have reported concerns, racialized bullying concerns are not new to BHHS or BHUSD. BHHS’ first Black principal claimed in a lawsuit that he was the target of a “malicious campaign of discrimination and retaliation,” and settled with the school system in 2015. Ahead of a basketball game with rivals in Santa Monica, a student captioned a photo of Santa Monica High School’s cheerleaders calling them “monkeys,” and many of the girls shown were Black.
Under both California and Federal law, school districts have an obligation to ensure students are not just free from discrimination and harassment but to actively combat biases within their curriculum, faculty and students. Diana Chehata told ACWN via email “no student should have to live in fear that their national origin, or religion, or ancestry could subject them to bullying or harassment. BHHS and the District have to make sure they work to protect and safeguard all students.”
AWCN attempted to contact multiple school administrators multiple times within BHuSD via email and phone calls asking for clarification on the allegations of school bullying. None were returned.
It’s unclear how they are doing so; there’s certainly a pattern going back several years of groups claiming they have experienced an atmosphere which contains discrimination and harassment. BHUSD schools begin their academic year this month.
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