BARSTOW - A teacher claiming anti-Semitism was fired in a 4-1 vote by the Barstow Unified School District board of trustees Tuesday night, after board members heard public commentary from the head of the Jewish Defense League and other members of the community.

In a prepared statement, BUSD Board President Steven Sluder said policy and administrative regulations prevent the school board from commenting on individual personnel action.

Stanley Clair cast the lone dissenting vote.

"I came to this administration for help and you retaliated against me," Shelley Davis said in a prepared statement read prior to the vote. "You were too afraid of your reputation, so you chose to reprimand the victims of that teacher and principal instead."

Davis, a former teacher at Barstow Middle School, said another teacher at the school repeatedly made anti-Jewish comments to her.

Irv Rubin, chairman of the Jewish Defense League, spoke to school board members about anti-Semitism. Rubin first spoke publicly to BUSD board members Dec. 7, on behalf of Davis and Lou Diaz, also a former Barstow Middle School teacher.

"I personally call it Jew hatred. I didn't want to be antiseptic anymore," Rubin said. "The alleged statement was made by Roy McKenzie.

In reference to a Feb. 10 Desert Dispatch advertisement placed by nearly 50 Barstow Middle School staff members, Rubin said one specific signature - McKenzie's - was problematic.

"It is the reason I'm here tonight," Rubin said.

Diaz, involved in a proposed discrimination lawsuit against the school district, told the board he has suffered racial and religious discrimination and coercion by site and district administrators.

"I believe I am a victim of retaliation for bringing to light the racist and anti-Semitic conditions at Barstow Middle School to site and district administrators," Diaz said. " I'm here and I'm not afraid to stand in front of you.

"I need my job... But I've got kids that go to public schools, and I don't want a racist bigot teaching my kids and infecting my kids with his illness. You can choose to do what you want with me now or in the future, but I'm not going to let this go. It's too much, too often."

Police officers attended the meeting in street clothes. District administrators requested police presence as a precautionary measure, Police Chief Kenneth Becknell said.

"We were requested to send a couple of officers to observe and keep us apprised of anything that happens," Becknell said.

David, Diaz and substitute teacher John Coffey allege district administrators failed to properly address their claims of workplace anti-Semitism.

David said she and McKenzie went into mediation with the school principal regarding the incidents, but she was unhappy with the results.

Following the mediation, Davis said she requested a transfer to another school to escape the harassment.

"I was transferred to an elementary school within the district where I fell under constant scrutiny," Davis told the board. According to the district administrator's own admission, my new site administrator had been given information which created a hostile working environment for me."

Davis was transferred again, and is now teaching with the district's Independent Study Program until the end of the school year.