A judge Monday began mulling a motion by attorneys representing the Los Angeles Unified School District to dismiss an ageism suit filed by a 70-year-old former Venice High School music teacher who contends that she endured years of harassment and that the administration chose not to investigate.
Wendy Sarnoff’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was filed in October 2024 and alleges discrimination, failure to prevent discrimination, harassment and retaliation. She says she was denied needed training and was ultimately forced to resign in 2023 because of harassment due to her age. She says included an administrator who asked when she was going to retire.
Judge Cherol J. Nellon heard arguments Monday and took the case under submission.
In their dismissal motion, district lawyers deny any age discrimination and say Sarnoff often called students “stupid,” “idiot” and “not bright.”
Sarnoff once said in her class that it smelled “like a French whorehouse” and another time told students, “If you can’t sing `The Star Spangled Banner’ you should die,” according to the LAUSD lawyers’ pleadings.
In October 2023, the school principal gave Sarnoff a written statement of a possible issuance of a notice of unsatisfactory act with suspension based on the results of Venice High’s investigations,
But in their court papers, Sarnoff’s attorneys say members of the school staff used disparaging language when talking about the plaintiff, including, “You’re too old, it’s hopeless” when she asked for training with new computer technology.
When Sarnoff’s LAUSD computer was stolen, the LAUSD failed to replace it and she had to raise money to get one on her own, the woman’s lawyers further state in their court papers.
After a school security worker who was a mother of one of Sarnoff’s students asked an assistant principal in 2017 for help with her computer, the assistant principal responded, “Are you becoming Wendy?,” the plaintiff’s lawyers further state in their court papers.
The assistant principal’s alleged age-discrimination comments escalated toward the plaintiff in 2019 when he repeatedly suggested that her age made her less valuable and therefore she should retire, Sarnoff’s attorneys further state in their court papers.
“Plaintiff did her best to ignore these comments and LAUSD’s refusal to provide her with computer training to continue doing the job she loved, but plaintiff felt like she was the laughing stock of VHS,” according to Sarnoff’s lawyers’ pleadings.
In faculty meetings, Sarnoff was repeatedly mocked as “old” and “old school” and her lack of familiarity with technology was made fun of in a disparaging way, the plaintiff’s attorneys further state in their court papers.
Sarnoff was hired in 1991 and began teaching at Venice High School two years later. She was the school’s music department chairwoman at the time of her resignation. She also taught students, managed instruments and acted as the choral groups’ choir director. VHS participated in national competitions under her guidance.
But Sarnoff, frustrated with the alleged age discrimination, quit her job in 2023 due to her work environment, according to her attorneys’ court papers, which further state that the principal at the time requested that she be marked as “ineligible for rehire” even before she quit.