Beverly Hills Passes Demonstration Restrictions Around Schools

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — The City of Beverly Hills unanimously voted Tuesday to pass an ordinance that will restrict demonstrations near students and schools. The decision comes nearly a week after a contentious anti-vaccine mandate protest occurred at Hawthorne Elementary School.

Protesters followed Hawthorne students and parents on their walk to school on Oct. 6 while holding signs and yelling about California's recent student vaccine mandate. The protest has become the focus of local and national conversation. The Beverly Hills Unified School District board of education and City of Beverly Hills addressed the protest Tuesday in respective meetings.

The ordinance passed Tuesday night will prohibit demonstrations during the school day within 300 feet of a middle or elementary school and within 100 feet of the city's high school — with buffer time for drop-off and pickup. The ordinance will also prohibit demonstrators from following or "harassing" students on their way to or from school within 10 blocks of the campus, according City Attorney Larry Wiener. The ordinance specifically defined the term harassment.

The ordinance prohibits protesters from interfering with an existing permitted event or demonstration and restricts any demonstration that will produce significant noise around a school, thus distracting from students' learning experience. Protections around playgrounds were also included.

Because the ordinance was classified as an "urgency ordinance," it will become effective immediately, bypassing the normal second reading and 30-day delay before a normal ordinance would become effective. The council also unanimously voted to move a nearly identical regular ordinance forward for second reading.

"From my perspective and from, clearly, this council's perspective, no one messes with our kids," Vice Mayor Lili Bosse said.

City Personnel, Members Of The Public Respond

BHUSD Superintendent Michael Bregy and Police Chief Dominick Rivetti also addressed the protest during Tuesday's meetings.

Rivetti said police have sent an incident report and all footage of the demonstration to the District Attorney's office and City Attorney's office to determine if any violations of the law occurred.

Rivetti also said the police department has created an operational plan to handle similar demonstrations in the future, including creating a physical distance between students and protesters and ushering demonstrators to a designated space near the school.

Multiple members of the public spoke at Tuesday's board and city council meetings to express their disapproval of last week's protest.

Two members of the public spoke in support of the city's new restrictions and asked the city to strictly enforce the ordinance.

Beverly Hills resident Max Brockman drew attention to what he considers inconsistent police responses to different types of protests. The police treated the anti-vaccine protesters far more kindly than they handle protesters of color, he said in a written comment.

Brockman referenced the ongoing class-action lawsuit facing the city and Beverly Hills Police Department regarding the arrest of 106 people of color between March 2020 and July 2021.

Brockman used Beverly Hills police's treatment of protesters following the police murder of George Floyd as evidence that protesters of color would have been treated differently.

Background

California became the first state to mandate vaccines for all eligible students on Oct. 1. The move proved controversial, and protesters have since spoken out against the mandate across Los Angeles and the state.

Many Beverly Hills parents walked their kids to school Wednesday as part of a national Walk to School Day along with Mayor Bob Wunderlich and Rachelle Marcus, president of the Beverly Hills Unified School District's board of education.

Protesters met students and their families outside Kelly's Coffee & Fudge Factory, which is about a half-mile away from Hawthorne, and walked with them all the way to the school.

In videos, protesters can be heard trying to engage parents and children, calling masks "child abuse" and likening vaccine mandates to sexual assault. The protesters argued that Walk to School day was "another manipulation and photo op," according to a flyer for the protest.

Read More:

• Beverly Hills To Consider Demonstration Restriction
• Anti-Vaccine Protesters Take On School Students, Parents
• Anti-Mask Protesters Gather Outside Hawthorne Elementary