The union representing Los Angeles Unified School District teachers pulled its endorsement of embroiled board candidate Kahllid Al-Alim late Monday, March 4, on the eve of Tuesday’s primary election.
Al-Alim, who could not be reached for comment early Tuesday, is one of seven candidates seeking to succeed retiring board member George McKenna as the District 1 representative. The district runs from around Beverly Hills southward, wrapping around Inglewood and ending at Gardena.
Al-Alim’s candidacy took a hit last month because of revelations about social media activity that was sexually explicit, as well of some posts that led to accusations of antisemitism. Al-Alim previously aplogized for the posts.
United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents more than 35,000 LAUSD educators, announced it had rescinded its endorsement of Al-Alim in a statement on its website.
“United Teachers Los Angeles has rescinded our endorsement of District 1 school board candidate Kahllid Al-Alim after a democratic process that involved (multiple union bodies),” the union’s statement said. “UTLA member leaders moved decisively as information came to light.”
Al-Alim became the center of controversy in late February when screen shots of his activity on X, formerly Twitter, began surfacing. Some of the activity was decried as antisemitic; he also followed accounts that were sexually explicit in nature, including those that promoted women on the adult site OnlyFans. The activity was from Al-Alim’s personal X account, which was deleted when the controversy erupted.
Al-Alim quickly apologized for the activity in a statement, and said his career — which included serving on the African American Education Task Force and advocating for the creation of the Black Student Achievement plan, according to his website — had been dedicated to fighting oppression. He also did not drop out of the District 1 race; the top two finishers will face off in the November general election.
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