Above: The Wilshire Park Elementary community stands behind Resource Teacher Kirsten Cook as she speaks to the school board May 12 about the impact of the principal’s mismanagement on student services.

After an escalated campaign involving educators, staff, and parents, the Wilshire Park Elementary community is feeling hopeful with recent news that their bully principal is being replaced.

The Wilshire Park school community has suffered under the authoritarian rule of principal Creary for twelve years, since she was ousted by parents and educators at Baldwin Hills Elementary and transferred to their school. Second-grade teacher and Wilshire Park Co-Chapter Chair Sonia Camacho remembers the progression of toxicity Creary created at the school over the years.

“When principal Creary arrived, we were aware of her being run out of her previous school, but were open to giving her a chance,” says Camacho. “But then, as she began to feel more comfortable, she turned to retaliation when we disagreed with her, and micromanagement of parents and staff. We all learned to lay low, and what had once been a safe space for dialogue, became a space where we tiptoed.”

Third-grade teacher and Wilshire Park Co-Chair Yanira Estrada says she and others on their Chapter Action Team decided it was time to fight back when the principal’s bullying pushed a colleague past her breaking point and she ended up in the ER at the start of the school year.

“We said, ‘You know what? We need to do this. We can’t be afraid anymore,’” recalls Estrada.

They held a UTLA meeting and got 100% commitment from members to fight together for a new principal. Estrada says they started off documenting every unethical and harmful thing principal Creary said and did for months and, by October 2025, had submitted over 80 complaints to their Local District Region West director. Every teacher was responsible for reaching out to their classroom’s parents and caregivers, starting with those they knew had been a target of the principal’s condescending and reckless behavior.

Educators and staff held a meeting at the school and invited parents to discuss how to build pressure on the leaders of their local district to intervene. Estrada remembers being surprised at how many parents showed up to that meeting, and that it motivated her to keep going.

“We said, ‘Okay, we have to do this. We have parents who are listening to us and willing to stand by us,’” says Estrada.

The principal’s true colors really showed when she told educators and staff to “move on” after the school suffered the tragic loss of their Chapter Chair mid-year.

“We wanted principal Creary to be a leader in that moment,” says Estrada. “We wanted her to step up and say ‘Let’s do something. Let’s remember her.’ Instead she created an environment that was toxic for the whole school.”

Local District leadership finally agreed to meet in January to discuss the complaints from staff and parents. Shortly after, they opened a formal investigation into the principal’s behavior. However, months went by with no updates from the district and they refused to meet again citing the open investigation. Estrada says she felt like the district was not really listening and tried to sweep their concerns under the rug.

But they didn’t let up. Educators, staff, and parents continued making calls and requesting meetings with local district leadership.

“The parents collected evidence with us, helped gather signatures, and passed out flyers,” says Camacho. “All of this in front of principal Creary.”

They met every week to share ideas and build a strategy to win the kind of leadership their school community deserves. In May, they circulated a petition gathering 150 signatures from parents, staff, and all twenty UTLA members at Wilshire Park. They took their petition to the school board and testified on how the principal’s behavior was impacting the entire school community, including the students.

Resource Teacher Kirsten Cook told the school board how the principal’s mismanagement of Special Education funds nearly cost her students critical reading intervention services.

“In just four weeks, students made measurable gains in reading fluency in phonics,” Cook told the school board. “However, these gains almost never happened. After families had accepted offers of services, the teacher position supporting this program was eliminated despite approved funding.”

Two weeks later, Wilshire Park staff and families received an email from Local District West that an interim principal had been appointed to finish out the school year. This week, they met with local district leadership to work on a transition plan for the interim principal.

“For me, I personally feel like we have hope now,” says Estrada. “We have hope that things are going to change. We stuck together as a team and now we have hope that next year will be different.”

This story is dedicated to the memory of Mayra Lopez and anyone suffering through domestic violence. To access help or resources visit www.PeaceOverViolence.org or www.LALGBTCenter.org.