Parents Picket, Plead on Behalf of Principal

Angered over the transfer of their beloved elementary school principal, more than a dozen parents and two children bombarded Simi Valley school trustees with tearful pleas to keep her.

Earlier, more than 100 parents and their children picketed outside Atherwood Elementary School in the morning and then, in the evening, outside Simi Valley City Hall, where the trustees hold their monthly meeting.

Carrying picket signs that read “Don’t Bully Beverley,” the protesters said they were hoping to reverse the district’s decision to transfer Beverley Radloff to Katherine Elementary School.

Waving a petition against the transfer signed by 155 parents and 117 children, Marvin Friedman told the board that most parents believed Radloff was being forced out of her job by a district official in connection with her handling of two harassment complaints.

One complaint alleged that an Atherwood Elementary School kindergarten boy on several occasions last October pulled down the pants of a 5-year-old classmate, now 6, and touched his genitals. The child’s mother has since reported a separate incident in which a different classmate reportedly touched her son’s genital area while in the bathroom.

Those accusations came in the wake of a case earlier this year in which a fourth-grade girl alleged that a classmate made sexual innuendoes with a pickle. The classmate was disciplined, but she is appealing for harsher punishment.

“We find it appalling that the principal is being moved for allegations about mismanagement which we the parents feel are untrue,” he said. “Our principals should be able to manage their schools and not be threatened.”

Radloff, who was crying Tuesday as she left the board meeting after a brief goodbye speech, declined to comment. But she and district officials have said publicly that her transfer is the result of a district policy to move principals after several years at one school.

After nearly an hour of angry comments from parents, trustee Debbie Sandland recommended that the board look into the district’s policy of transferring principals.