Teachers’ Firings Expose Conflict at Catholic School : Education: Parents, students unhappy with St. Bernard High’s administration stage sit-in and write archdiocese in protest.

After years of simmering tensions between parents and administrators, St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic High School in Playa del Rey has seen recent public confrontations sparked by the firing of two well-regarded instructors.

More than 90 students and nearly a dozen parents staged a sit-in on campus to protest the dismissals last month of social science teacher Andre Nkrumah Hayes and economics instructor Al Minzenberg. School officials did not discuss the reasons for the dismissals, saying only that the teachers’ annual contracts were not renewed.

The demonstration marked the most public protest yet for parents who have long complained about the school’s administration. In a June 12 letter to the Los Angeles archdiocese, about 20 parents claimed that the school’s top officials foster an environment in which “racial slurs are explained away as trivial” and “parents are seen as enemies instead of partners.”

The accusations have been fiercely denied by school officials, including the Rev. William J. Brelsford, St. Bernard’s principal since 1988.

For some time, administrators and some parents have been at odds at the 860-student private school, where the annual tuition runs about $3,000 a year. About 60% of the students are African American and about 15% Latino.

With Hayes’ departure, the 45-member teaching staff has two African Americans and six Latinos.

Brelsford refused to comment on the departures of Hayes and Minzenberg, saying he could not discuss personnel matters.

Minzenberg, who had taught at the school for seven years, has appealed his dismissal to the archdiocese. Hayes joined the school two years ago; as a newer instructor, he does not have the option of appealing.

In an interview, Hayes, 31, said he was not told why he was dismissed but that he had been put on probation for “offenses” that included challenging what he described as “Eurocentric” history texts.

“I was given the ‘Hidden Black Agenda’ label because I was concerned about the African American students,” said Hayes, a 1981 graduate of St Bernard’s.

Students said Hayes was a committed teacher.

He often spent his free time tutoring students, said Imani X, a St. Bernard’s graduate who attends Cal State Los Angeles. “And it wasn’t a color thing,” she said. “Asian and Latino students sought him out. He told us to stop listening to people who say you are not good. . . . He helped some students get jobs. He had such an impact on our lives.”

Minzenberg, 60, was also well regarded by students and parents. He said school officials told him he was being dismissed because he refused to attend the monthly Mass on campus.

“When I was hired, I made it clear to Brelsford that I could not attend religious services in good conscience because I would feel that I was betraying my own religion,” said Minzenberg, who was raised an Orthodox Jew.

Like Hayes, Minzenberg said he is troubled by St. Bernard’s state of affairs. “I had a student in my class who said, ‘Mr. M., [some teachers] talk down to us. They treat us like dumb animals.’ And this came from an A student,” Minzenberg said.

The parents, dissatisfied with Brelsford’s public comments after the firings, have also contacted the archdiocese--first in a letter and then in a meeting two weeks ago.

Citing a letter by students, the parents said one African American pupil claimed that a teacher told him he would “probably be incarcerated by the time he was 20 years old.” They said the same teacher reportedly told a Latina student that she would “probably end up pregnant and on welfare.”

The parents also noted that students were ignored when they complained about the defacement of a Malcolm X mural. A Mickey Mouse watch was painted on his wrist.

Although parents said the incidents were reported to the school administration, Brelsford, in an interview, said they “had never been brought to my attention.”

Archdiocese officials said they will invite all the school’s parents to future talks.

But some parents are skeptical that the archdiocese will heed their complaints.

Margaret Bowers, whose son will be a senior at St. Bernard’s this fall, said the principal last month “told parents that if we didn’t like [the school], then we could leave.”

And parent Daniel Fields said that if the ranks of critics do not grow, the archdiocese will conclude that only “a minority of parents are unhappy with the way the school is being run, [and] nothing will change.”