Long Beach Poly teacher placed on leave again after students allege verbal and physical abuse

A teacher at Long Beach Polytechnic High School has been placed on leave for the second time in a month after multiple students accused her of being physically and verbally abusive in class.

Although the Long Beach Unified School District declined to provide details about the ongoing investigation into Libby Huff, or the nature of the complaints that have been made against her, an online anonymous compilation attributed to students contains 31 statements regarding her alleged inappropriate actions in the classroom.

The Long Beach Police Department also is investigating the matter.

Huff, a 15-year veteran of the district who has taught at Poly for 11 years, was originally placed on paid administrative leave Jan. 13 “pending our school district’s investigation into a complaint,” according to district spokesman Chris Eftychiou.

She returned to the classroom Wednesday after that investigation was completed, but was put back on leave Friday “pending our investigation into newly received complaints,” Eftychiou added.

“The school district is not at liberty to provide details of such investigations, but we consider the safety and well-being of our students to be our top priority,” Eftychiou wrote in an email Tuesday.

Eftychiou said he could not confirm whether the complaints the district is probing involve Huff’s classroom conduct, or say whether she was disciplined following the initial investigation.

The authors of an anonymous blog post titled “Enough of Huff: Students of Long Beach Poly High School Speak Out” made a variety of allegations of misconduct by the teacher.

The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services notified the Long Beach Police Department on Monday “of allegations of criminal conduct by a teacher against students at Poly High School,” according to police public information officer Arantxa Chavarria.

“The department immediately sent officers to contact the four juvenile victims and reports were taken to document the alleged abuse,” Chavarria wrote in an email. “Detectives from the Child Abuse Detail are actively investigating the allegations and are in the process of reviewing the reports and determining if any additional victims and/or witnesses need to be contacted.”

Students also claimed in the blog that Huff addressed them in a belittling and inappropriate fashion.

It’s unclear how long the investigation into Huff might take.

“We don’t have a timeline at this point,” Eftychiou said.

The teacher could not immediately be reached for comment.