Former students of Libby Huff read “Enough of Huff” and emailed enoughofhuffnow@gmail.com directly. The Alumni shared kind and uplifting words, and surprised myself and the rest of our team with testimonies of their own versus Huff. Some of the Alumni have decided to remain anonymous, while others chose not to — All Alumni did provide their graduating class..

Kristin Costley — co’2012

A few days ago, I logged onto Facebook only to be shocked by a picture of Poly High School staring back at me with “Enough of Huff” in black black letters below. I knew instantly who this was about and why.”

While Libby Huff was never violent with students when I attended her class back in 2009 as a freshman or 2011 as junior, she was still a horrible teacher . . . . I do remember not being happy I had to have her as a teacher again come junior year. This time around I had a Facebook account . . . as a space to vent with family and friends. Many of my posts from that year circled around the torment I endured in her class.

I have photos of myself and other students scoring the same on a test but receiving different percentage grades.

Published on Facebook by Long Beach Poly Alumna of 2012 on April 5, 2011

For turning in only one of three scholarship applications, she gave one student 100%, another 33% and myself 0% for the same amount of work done.

Published on Facebook by Long Beach Poly Alumna of 2012 on May 13, 2011

When we would ask her about grading discrepancies she would storm off like a child and refuse to talk to us. If someone scored high on a test but she didn’t like their attitude in class, she would mark them excused from the test so it could not benefit their grade. I would often log on to SchoolLoop to see a line of A’s for the other classes I was taking and a D in her class.

Published on Facebook by Long Beach Poly Alumna of 2012 on November 10, 2010

My mom took off work to speak to her about my grade. When she arrived my grade miraculously turned into a B- wasting my mother’s time. Not only was Mrs. Huff terrible when it came to grading, she was also a bully.

One day one of my classmates was gone for two even days in a row. She took this opportunity to make fun of her weight and said she probably isn’t coming to school to avoid P.E. She would often say that anyone planning on going to community college was a “slacker”, “loser”, or “drop out”. She would make things like taking the SAT a 500 point assignment. An assignment I got a zero on because I was going to community college . . . I explained this to her several times but I still received a zero. (For the record, I attended LBCC . . . transferred to CSULB and have my Bachelor’s Degree in Studio Art so it seems community college worked out for me).

Another day there was a fire drill. As the class began to get up she yelled at us to sit back down . . . during the drill to catch up on other work. Myself and another student argued with her stating . . . we don’t even know if it’s just a drill or a real emergency. She said if we walked out we would get zeros for the day. We walked out. She and the class left a few seconds later knowing that if we were to tell another adult what she was doing, she would be in trouble, not us.

These are things that stick out in my mind when I think of Mrs. Huff. After nine years of living my life I still remember these things because they seemed so cruel. And these are just the stories that I can remember. I’m sure if this article came out in 2012, I’d have plenty more stories to tell that weren’t erased through time. It is my deep belief that this woman should not be in charge of children. She has proven time and time again to be unfit to teach. My issues were brought up with administration when I was there and nothing happened. I commend these students for not stopping at administration this time. They know what is right and they took it higher. I respect them and support them 100% in their endeavor.

2. Kevin Melvin — co’2013

I don’t have a personal account of abuse, but I know in my time in her classroom, she did have a short fuse. And it must’ve been specifically short for black students and students of color. I never saw her snap at the white students angrily.

3. Anonymous Alumna — co’2012

Admittedly, at first I liked Ms Huff. She clearly favoured me (which was rare for me at Poly) though never gave any particular reason beyond the fact that we both came from the same part of California. In time I did start to wonder if it was due to my not being (obviously) a person of colour, though that is just my assumption. Her favouritism was always obvious, from giving me assignments she hand picked to my liking, to just generally being more willing to let me get away with things. The most notable perhaps when she’d allow me to sneak in through her window on days when I was late (due to my spiking depression/insomnia). All was fine when I was doing it, but when another student (who was a person of colour and a better student than me) asked suddenly she had a problem with it. It wasn’t until the rest of the class pointed out the obvious bias and even myself speaking up did she allow it. This would happen many more times, letting me in no problem but god forbid if another student, and especially POC students were allowed in. Her favourtism only acted to ostracize me in the long run working in tandem with my emotional issues / weird aesthetic choices at the time.

She’d also make unusual remarks to my best friend while in Poly (another girl) about our supposed sexuality. Alluding to us being lesbians and trying to out us when we literally had nothing to out. Whenever one of us was absent from the other’s presence she’d say things like “trouble in paradise?” , “Is your girlfriend avoiding you?”, “Just kiss and make up” and a myriad of other weirdly presumptuous commentary about our sexuality with one another. Which left both of us very confused, we even tried to set the record straight with her and she just brushed it off like we were liars.

And if we’re to talk about her teaching methods alone, consider the many assignments I remember not getting proper lessons on. One that instantly comes to mind was an assignment which required us to fill out a very complicatedly coded excel sheet. An excel sheet that if one were to even just press one wrong button you could entirely ruin. When we asked for assistance beyond just the paper sheet she gave us (which was more prompts to search on google than insert data) she would treat us like we were dumb for even asking. That wasn’t the last time she did that, in fact it was a huge trend in my year — and likely the years thereafter.

For me though I have a very distinct memory regarding her class. I was doing a speech for some assignment and had been doing well. She even praised me. Sadly, during the speech I could feel my nerves getting to me — you see I have severe stage fright and by proxy really bad anxiety. I had never had a full blown panic attack until then. After I had concluded the speech it was as if my body decided to shut down, my legs literally gave out and I instantly sunk to the ground. I started to hyperventilate and ultimately freak out. Instead of asking me what was wrong or even giving me an opportunity to explain myself she instantly started mocking me. Even going so far as to egg the other students on to join her, which you can imagine does not bode well with someone freaking out. She forced me to crawl out of her class and as I sat in the hallway, still in full panic — now crying, she came out and threw my bag on top of me. Called me a “Grade A Actor” and said how she was “Disappointed” in me. She left me there…I was later found by a hall monitor and taken to the care center.

When I read the title of the article (Enough of Huff) being shared on the Facebooks of Poly Alumni I knew instantly what it was about. She has been terrorizing and traumatizing students for too long. It’s not like students haven’t tried to speak up against her before and been shut down. How long will Long Beach PolyTechnic allow this to go on before something is done about it?

Students deserve to feel safe in their learning environment, they deserve to be heard. I’m only sorry that this trauma continued as long as it did — But enough is enough. Something needs to be changed.

4. Anonymous Alumna — co’2010

I am a former poly graduate and I had Ms. Huff my senior year 2010. She hit me in the head. Im black as well. It only hurt because I just got my hair braided up. I didn’t like that. But it was inappropriate. She wasn’t mean though. She was inappropriate with jokes as well as other things.

5. Tyrah Boughman — co’2013

I was failing my last year at Poly, and was missing 1 class in order to graduate, my life got kind of complicated after I transferred from Long Beach Jordan High school because poly was so different but yet I loved the atmosphere and the diversity. . . . I had Ms. Huff and I felt like I could trust her with some advice on passing her class and graduate, but all she did was belittle me and make me feel like I wasn’t going to do anything with my life after college, she would be soooo sarcastic with me that I gave up and didn’t end up walking the stage until 2 weeks later I got my diploma.

Now I am succeeding in all of my studies as a soon to be sociologist. Furthermore, I feel for these students! I’m so so sad that I wasn’t the only one that was being mistreated. After high school I thought about Huff and now this is all coming out. Reading these student testimonials brought tears to my eyes because I know what it feel like to be mistreated as a high school student just trying to make it but you have a teacher like Huff who is so bitter towards her students that it makes you want to give up. I hope the district takes actions in this . . . I’m glad I’m finally able to speak out and express how i truly feel.

6. Yoshino Jasso — co’2012

I was in her DECA business club and I remember on an overnight field trip that was just for us, she allowed some white students from another Poly Academy to join us. We all ended up getting kicked out of the DECA program because those boys had brought bottles of alcohol to the hotel and they partied all night. On the drive home, she punished our entire busload of students for it, and those boys weren’t even on our bus, they were on another bus and probably weren’t even disciplined.

I had her as a teacher during my freshman and sophomore year. I remember her talking down to students a lot, so I’m not surprised that her behavior escalated over the years.