Beverly Hills teacher claims she was fired for anti-Trump FB post

A longtime teacher in Beverly Hills has filed a claim against the school district after she claims she was fired for an anti-Trump post on Facebook.

Joanie Garratt, who worked for more than 30 years as a Beverly Hills Unified School District teacher and has recently been serving as a long-term AP U.S. History substitute, was fired on Nov. 13, well before her planned last day of Dec. 5, Garratt's attorney said in a news release.

After a Nov. 6 rally in support of President-elect Donald Trump at Beverly Hills High School, Garratt wrote on Facebook that she was "disheartened" by the march, during which the Make America Great Again supporters "harassed & 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 said.

"Some students arrived at school truly upset & even crying only to be bullied later by their classmates," she wrote. "And don’t blame the administration for this. They are dealing with it. This comes from their leader, His Majesty, King Trump.”

Garratt's attorney, V. James DeSimone, said in the release that "Assistant Superintendent Matthew Horvath informed her during a brief phone call that her post led to her dismissal, citing no further explanation."

"Garratt never discussed Trump, the election or the pro-Trump students’ demonstration in her classes. Her comment was made on her own Facebook account, on her own time, and is a prime example of political speech that’s protected under the First Amendment and California labor and education codes," the release explained.

“Joanie’s post, which criticized harassment at the rally and attributed student conduct to political rhetoric whipped up as part of Donald Trump’s re-election strategy, is constitutionally protected speech,” DeSimone added.

DeSimone argued that the BHUSD has a policy that "personal beliefs or activities outside of work should not be grounds for disciplinary action unless they violate the law or policy."

“This post was entirely within Joanie’s right of free speech and violated neither the law nor district policy," he said. "We intend to fully vindicate Ms. Garratt’s rights and filing this administrative claim is the first step in that legal journey for justice.”

A request for comment from the BHUSD was not immediately returned.