Principal Reinstated After Removal Over Actions in Breaking Up Fight

Carnegie Junior High School Principal Lionel Joubert returned to his job Wednesday, a day after parents, students and faculty picketed in front of the Carson school to protest allegations that he had overstepped his bounds in breaking up a schoolyard fight.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials removed Joubert on May 26 and ordered him to work at regional offices pending an investigation into his handling of the May 19 fight and an unrelated incident several days later, according to district officials.

Letter to Teachers

Although the officials said Joubert had not been suspended or dismissed, the principal sent a letter to teachers saying that he had been fired.

Late Tuesday, Deputy Supt. Sidney Thompson reinstated Joubert, 60, who has been with the Los Angeles district 35 years and is due to retire June 30.

“When I walked onto campus about 8:30 a.m., the kids from all the classrooms came running to the doors and said, ‘Welcome back,’ ” said Joubert in an interview.

“The teachers . . . all thanked me for wanting to maintain discipline at the school.”

In the fight, Joubert intervened as a ninth-grader was beating up a seventh-grader.

“We just had a situation where a youngster attacked another kid on the grounds and I pulled him off the kid he was beating on. He said to me, ‘Take your dirty hands off me.’ He continued to hit this little guy.

“I said, ‘Would you like somebody bigger than you to do that to you?’ He said, ‘You better not try it.’ I grabbed his shoulders.”

The ninth-grader’s mother complained to the superintendent that Joubert had physically abused her child, the principal said. “It appeared that I had done something criminal,” he said.

The woman could not be reached for comment; her child has been transferred to another school. Four student eyewitnesses said in interviews that Joubert had pushed the ninth-grader against a wall to restrain him but had not been unduly rough.

A district spokesman, Marty Estrin, said administrators are supposed to intervene when students fight but are expected to do so judiciously.

Joubert said that Deputy Supt. Thompson told him in a meeting Tuesday that he was right “to restrain the youngster.”

Thompson could not be reached, but a school official in his office, who asked not to be named, said that district officials had received differing versions of the incident and still questioned whether Joubert “was procedurally correct” in handling the incident.

The official also said the district was still reviewing the second incident but added he could not elaborate because it is a personnel matter. Joubert said he was unaware of any other problem.

‘A Sham’

“I think it was a sham,” the principal said, referring to mention of a second incident. “They have not discussed anything with me.”

Explaining Joubert’s return, the official said: “In light of the fact that he has 35 years with the district and is nearing retirement, it was felt he should be returned to his school whether or not he acted right or wrong. . . . In light of the fact that he is closing out a career, the staff felt that he should return.”

The official added that restoring calm at the school after the demonstrations in Joubert’s behalf was also a factor in his reinstatement.

About his return, Joubert said: “Having the parents (demonstrate) was really the crucial thing.”