At Beverly Hills High, Trump Victory Celebrations Ignite Simmering Racial Tensions

A high ranking administrator in the Beverly Hills Unified School District had an urgent, confidential message for the school board.

It was Oct. 27, just over a week before the presidential election, and tensions at Beverly Hills High School between Persian Jewish students and Black students were quickly escalating, wrote Laura Collins-Williams, an assistant superintendent for student services in the district. The school year had already seen a flurry of confrontations and fights and even a video that circulated of a student uttering a racial slur, she wrote.

“We must act urgently to prevent further violence,” Collins-Williams wrote. “Without immediate intervention, I fear violence will prevail.”

The message was ominous, but the messenger had a complicated history. For nine months, Collins-Williams had been embroiled in her own battle, accusing the district in a lawsuit of racial discrimination and retaliation, which the district has denied.

The highly flammable situation caught fire last month, when pro-Trump students at Beverly Hills High School held two days of what the district termed “spirited demonstrations” to celebrate the election results.

Boisterous students chanted pro-Trump slogans and carried flags mounted on poles throughout the school — but some Black students said racial slurs and racist rhetoric were used. The rallying students knocked on and tried to open the door of the classroom where the Black Students Union was meeting, which caused some of the teens and the teacher in the room to fear for their safety.

“All I could see at the door was a huge Trump flag on a pole. They’re asking me to open the door. I grabbed the handle because I didn’t want them to come in,” said Bella Ivory, the teacher whose classroom the demonstrators were trying to enter. Ivory, who is Black, said the situation upset her mental health and led her to take numerous days off from school.

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The pro-Trump demonstrations at Beverly Hills High School were foreshadowed by a mock election run by the Associated Student Body in conjunction with the school’s Social Studies department.

While the Beverly Hills precinct where the school is located had a tight margin in the presidential election — with Trump taking 49% of the vote compared to Harris’ 48% — students voted for Trump by a wider margin.

The day of the election and the day after, Trump supporters at the school rallied rowdily in courtyards and hallways, shouting pro-Trump slogans as they rushed around the school.

The rallies made many students who don’t support the former president feel uncomfortable.

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In the aftermath of the second day’s demonstrations, the school limited students’ ability to assemble in groups. Students would no longer be able to “congregate, circle up, shout, jump, etc.,” wrote Principal Drew Stewart in an email to students and families.

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But the political demonstrations gave rise to another debate over race. Were Black students and a Black teacher targeted by the demonstrators? And if so, for what purpose?

Security footage from outside Ivory’s classroom shows dozens of students walking past during lunch on Nov. 5, election day, some wearing Trump hats and others carrying Trump flags.

The minute-long video, released to The Times as part of a public information request, shows one student try to open the door to Ivory’s classroom. Others rap and knock on the door at various times, though their manner does not appear threatening. At one point in the video, the door briefly opens from the inside and quickly swings shut again. Most students walk right by the room.

Days after the incident, at a school district board meeting, Ivory and students from the Black Student Union spoke about the fear they felt during the rally.

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One student, Alexander, said some of the high schoolers in Ivory’s classroom “feared for their lives” as the “mob” chanted outside. Another member of the Black Student Union said she was called a slur by a student carrying a flag.

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Stern also pushed back against the narrative coming from students in the Black Students Union and Ivory.

“We cannot act on allegations that prove to be false,” she said. “There have been both adults and children who have claimed certain words or actions have occurred at specific times and places. A thorough investigation, to date, has not corroborated those claims… We can’t discipline individuals if we don’t have proven allegations.”

“We have no record of a report of a racial slur being used,” the district said.

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The school district, a rarity in Los Angeles County with a majority white student body, has had issues with allegations of racism in its past. Black students make up just under 3% of the students.

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Collins-Williams, who is Black, sued this year alleging that the district allowed a “culture of racism to permeate and ferment throughout BHUSD school sites, traumatizing students, parents, and staff who are African Americans and other persons of color.”

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