A former academic interventionist teacher at a Walnut Park elementary school has reached a settlement with her ex-employer regarding allegations she was fired for reporting the alleged abuse of a student by the principal in 2024.
Brandy Noble’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleged whistleblower retaliation and wrongful termination. On May 13, Noble’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge William Fahey notifying him of the accord. Her attorneys additionally filed court papers on Monday asking that the case be dismissed.
In their previous court papers, school attorneys said Nobel was terminated “following a well-documented history of performance deficiencies, none of which bore any relation to her complaint.”
Noble was hired as an English Language Arts intervention teacher at Academia Moderna in September 2023. Her lawsuit named as defendants the school and Alta Public Schools. She oversaw students in grades three to five and helped them improve their reading.
Noble was assigned to restroom monitoring duty in October 2024 when she saw the principal pick up a student, push the child into a dark room and pin the pupil to the floor, the suit alleged. Noble recorded what she saw on her cell phone, but after coming forward she was later told by a human resources representative as well as the director of curriculum and student services at an off-campus location where she was directed to go that the recording was against school policy, the suit filed in May 2025 stated.
“Ms. Noble believed that the instruction received from her superiors to remain silent concerning her observation of (the principal) was unlawful because it contravened each of their responsibilities as educators to report suspected child abuse,” according to the suit.
Noble reported what she saw to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as well as Los Angeles County Child Protective Services the next month, the suit further stated. The school administration later accused her of attempted extortion, falsely accused her of wanting to give the video to celebrity media outlets and put her on an unnecessary plan to improve her job performance, according to the suit.
Noble also was given two baseless reprimand letters that she maintained were meant to intimidate her, the suit stated. Noble was fired in December 2024 and told it was due to her “subpar performance,” the suit stated.