Joanie Garratt, a veteran teacher at Beverly Hills Unified (BHUSD), has filed an administrative claim against the district, arguing that it violated her constitutional rights and retaliated against her for expressing political opinions on her personal Facebook account. Her alleged termination was one consequence of the pro-Trump rallies at Beverly Hills High School that occurred during election week. 

Garratt was unable to be reached for comment, but her attorney V. James DeSimone spoke with Westside Voice about her claim. 

Garratt taught in Beverly Hills for 30 years before retiring in 2023. Since retirement, she has returned to the district on long-term substitute assignments. DeSimone described Garratt as a devoted and beloved teacher whose work extended far beyond the classroom. Garratt volunteered hundreds of hours as the faculty lead for the school’s Club Interact, a community service program. 

DeSimone stressed that Garratt’s actions throughout her career reflect a courageous person who cares deeply about BHUSD students.

Garratt, like other students and staff at Beverly Hills High, was concerned about the pro-Trump rallies occurring on campus during election week. 

On November 7, Garratt wrote a Facebook post expressing disappointment with the behavior of a “MAGA faction” of students who “harassed and intimidated” other students and used racist slurs. “Don’t blame the administration for this. They are dealing with it,” Garratt said. She said President-elect Donald Trump was to blame for students’ misconduct.

Students and staff gave similar accounts to the BHUSD Board of Education on November 12, saying that pro-Trump students had harassed and intimidated other students. Black students in particular described an openly hostile environment on campus where they were subjected to hate speech. Unlike Garratt, some speakers contended that district officials weren’t “dealing with it” at all, allowing unacceptable behavior to continue relatively unchecked. 

The next day, November 13, Garratt announced she had been fired by the district for her Facebook post. “I WEAR THIS AS A BADGE OF HONOR and stand with all the teachers, past, present & future who will be persecuted for expressing their views in a public forum,” Garratt wrote.

Garratt said Assistant Superintendent Matthew Horvath informed her over a brief phone call that she was being terminated specifically because of her November 7 Facebook post. 

Garratt’s claim states that “through threats, intimidation, and coercion,” BHUSD “violated [Garratt’s] Constitutional Rights and subjected her to an adverse employment action,” resulting in “retaliation, wrongful termination, and intentional/negligent infliction of emotional distress.”

The district has denied it fired Garratt. “Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) categorically denies the assertion that Ms. Joanie Garratt was terminated from her position. Ms. Garratt retired from full-time teaching in BHUSD years ago and was serving and remains a substitute teacher in the District. No action was taken to dismiss her or any other employee in the last month,” BHUSD Superintendent Michael Bregy said in a statement.

DeSimone contended that the district is obscuring the reality of Garratt’s case and using the fact that she was a substitute to deny her her rights as an employee. “They’re quibbling,” he said. “There’s no exception to the U.S. Constitution for someone on a temporary assignment.”

After her phone call with the Assistant Superintendent, Garratt sent an email asking for clarification – was she really being fired?

DeSimone said she never received a response. 

If the district hadn’t fired her, “Why didn’t they respond back to her and say ‘No, you’re welcome back to teach here at any time?’” DeSimone asked. “She feels absolutely discarded.”

“By ending her assignment, what they’ve really done is effectively ended her career,” DeSimone said. 

DeSimone argued that firing Garratt for expressing her political opinion outside of work violates federal and state law and the California education code. Generally, teachers’ free speech concerning politics is limited in the classroom, but off-the-clock political speech is protected. There are instances when teachers can face discipline for expressing political opinions outside of school – namely, if those opinions are disruptive to the classroom or reveal that a teacher is unfit to teach – but DeSimone argued that wasn’t the case with Garratt.

“On the contrary, Ms. Garratt was a source of support for students who felt disrupted and intimidated by the pro-Trump rallies,” DeSimone said. She made no political comments in class and continued teaching without issue before being fired a week later. 

DeSimone said they chose to file Garratt’s claim publicly to challenge the chilling effect Garratt’s firing has had on other teachers and employees at BHUSD. BHUSD was trying to make an example out of Garratt, he argued, and the consequences were potentially far-reaching, forcing other employees to choose between “supporting their families” or exercising their constitutional rights. 

“[The district] singled out a teacher who expressed views that were opposed to Donald Trump. We know that there are teachers who express pro-Trump views in the classrooms [at BHH] without repercussions. So you’re not only firing someone for the expression of their first amendment rights, but you’re firing them for the content of their speech, the content of their political opinions,” DeSimone said.

Garratt is not the only BHUSD employee currently pursuing a legal case against the district. Laura Collins-Williams, the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, filed a lawsuit against BHUSD in January, alleging she had been subject to race and gender-based discrimination and retaliation by the district.

When Garratt was allegedly fired, she was teaching an AP U.S. History class. Garratt had taught AP U.S. History before and had the expertise to teach the challenging material.

“The unfortunate part is that it’s the students who will suffer,” DeSimone said.

One student in the AP U.S. History class Garratt was teaching, Amina, spoke to Westside Voice about the impact of Garratt’s absence. The student’s name has been changed to protect her privacy. 

When Garratt left the classroom two weeks ago, there was no suitable replacement. “Now we have a substitute teacher who isn’t able to teach us anything,” Amina said. Their new substitute doesn’t teach history, much less their specific curriculum. 

Amina described the pressures of the AP U.S. History course – every hour of instruction was precious, and every week they didn’t have an appropriate teacher put them further off-schedule and less prepared to pass the AP exam in the spring.

“I know a lot of people are really scared that they’re going to fail the exam now,” Amina said. She said some students were even considering dropping the course. 

Beyond worrying about the academic consequences, Amina was upset for her teacher and unnerved by the implications of her apparent firing – it seemed to Amina like the district was protecting one type of political speech and penalizing others.

“What message does this send to the students?” DeSimone said. “It’s ironic for an educational institution like Beverly Hills Unified to fire an AP U.S. history teacher over a First Amendment expression.” DeSimone said Garratt was being denied the rights she taught her students about every day. 

DeSimone intends to send a message back, not just to BHUSD, but to any company taking aim at workers’ First Amendment protections. 

“Like I told Joanie – this lawsuit might be the best history lesson that anybody can get.”

Photo by Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons