On September 3, BHUSD was served with a detailed federal court complaint filed on behalf of 13 current and former District students. It sets forth ten separate claims. (See page 2).

In summary it alleges that it is “a civil rights action arising from [the District’s] systemic failure to protect Black students from a racially hostile educational environment that the District has known about for years, failed to remediate, and in several instances exacerbated through the conduct or inaction of administrators, teachers, coaches, and staff.” The complaint goes on for over fifty pages to allege in detail specific instances of racial epithets and other harassing conduct by non-black students directed at their black classmates.

I do not presume to make any judgment about the factual or legal merits of this case nor do I make any prediction about the outcome.

I solicited comment from Dr. Alex Cherniss and Board President Judith Manouchehri but received no response.

I do have some opinions about it.

The fact that there may be substantial and pervasive misbehavior by some number of students is no surprise. The governing Trio led by Manouchehri has permitted to persist an undisciplined culture for which there are limited if any consequences for misbehavior or irresponsible behavior. Recent actions to relax requirements for punctuality are steps in the wrong direction. Unfortunately the administration provides little in the way of adult supervision and the fact that one of the prominently mentioned members of administration is black is will count for little if the testimony of the thirteen alleged victims is credible and persuasive.

A contributing factor is the Board’s obsession with stifling dissent. For example, the Board has relegated public comment at its meetings to the very end of the agenda requiring that members of the public wait for hours before having a few minutes to speak about troublesome issues. Similarly, the opportunity for the public to speak via Zoom has been discontinued. Never is heard a discouraging word may be ok for a home on the range but it is not a healthy way to govern.

More than any other single thing, this no consequence culture is responsible for the consistently disappointing rankings of our schools when compared with other neighboring or similar Districts.

Some of the specific allegations are not new and the District has likely had ample opportunities to reach a constructive pre-litigation resolution. It didn’t take those opportunities and we need not wring our hands over the spilt milk.

However, continuing to deny everything and circle the wagons approach, which seems to be the only thing in the District’s playbook, is unwise.

Rather, the District should hire a totally independent, experienced and objective investigator to advise on what has happened and the predictable consequences.

Once that has occurred, the District should follow that advice and, if appropriate, take constructive action to solve the problem and heal the wounds that this litigation brings to the fore.

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One of the more interesting side gigs of our Councilmembers is Lester Friedman’s work as the official scorekeeper for the UCLA Bruins basketball team.

Actually Councilmember Friedman has two side gigs while helping to govern our City as he is also a busy practicing lawyer. But his UCLA involvement is much more interesting and the subject of this piece.

Friedman’s basketball record keeping career commenced at Fairfax High School during his senior year in 1968. He enrolled at UCLA and lived at home with his parents in nearby Westwood. He was looking for a way to become involved in campus life and saw an ad in the UCLA Daily Bruin soliciting applications for the job as a basketball freshman team manager.

He landed the job and what a job it was. His responsibilities included making sure that all of the equipment was ready for practices and games – uniforms, balls, chairs and other equipment. And best of all, it was a volunteer position – no pay. But he did get some required physical education credit and, while an undergraduate, moved up to handling these duties for the varsity.

After graduating from UCLA in 1973, Les attended Southwestern University Law School and continued working as a team manager. At this time, the legendary John Wooden was the coach of the basketball team and at the height of his unprecedented success. To this day, Les refers to him as “Coach”.

During Les’s time as student manager, the two greatest recruits of all time, first Lewis Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul Jabbar) and then Bill Walton, took UCLA to numerous championships.

Les had an especially close relationship with Walton or, rather, with Walton’s knees. Before every practice and every game, Les treated those knees with something called hydrocollator hot pads to provide moist heat for 30 minutes. And after every practice and every game, Les supervised ice pack treatment for those same knees.

Walton was a first team All-American for three years, National Player of the Year for three years and Final Four Most Outstanding Player for three years (which no one has ever matched) from 1972 to 1974. Without Les’ tender mercies, none of this would have been possible. (That’s my opinion, Friedman did not say that.)

During the 1975 NCAA Tournament, Les was in the team locker room after the Bruins had defeated the Louisville Cardinals. Louisville was coached by a former Bruin assistant coach, Denny Crum. The coach is described by a very understated man who never displayed much emotion. After a victory, there would be no excitement displayed by Coach, only a few comments to the effect that the team had played well and up to their potential.

On this occasion, Coach walked into the locker room, expressed his thanks to the team for playing well and then, in an unemotional way, announced that the next game, the NCAA tournament finals, would be the last as the UCLA coach.

Two days later, on March 31, 1975, UCLA beat Kentucky for the NCAA Championship. It was Coach Wooden’s unprecedented 10th national championship and last day as Coach.

Coach Wooden’s retirement did not end Les’ UCLA career. As a graduate assistant manager, he handled the scoreboard and compiled statistics.

In 1995, he became the Official Scorer for all UCLA basketball home games, a position he holds today. As official scorer, Les is responsible for keeping an accurate running score, keeping track of fouls and who is on the court and who is on the bench at any time. What the scoreboard reflects may be informative but Les’ records are the official tally.

I can tell that Coach Wooden, who Les was in regular contact with until Coach’s death in 2010, was a tremendous influence on Les. Some of the values that Coach taught are as follows:

• All of life is peaks and valleys. Don’t let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.

• Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

• Make each day your masterpiece.

• Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

I see these values displayed as Les leads his life and performs his job as a Beverly Hills City Councilmember.