A video showed wrestling coach Ryan Faintich shoving a student on Nov. 2 on the Beverly Hills High School campus. The recall effort was organized by people upset about BHUSD firing Faintich.

An effort to recall three Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education members has failed after the recall proponents did not meet a deadline for submitting legal documents to county officials, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk spokesman Mike Sanchez said.

After filing notices of intention to circulate a recall petition on Dec. 15, the proponents failed to submit affidavits to the county registrar by the Jan. 3 deadline, Sanchez said. The proponents never reached the petition-gathering stage, he added.

The effort to recall board president Noah Margo, vice president Amanda Stern and board member Mary Wells was initiated by residents upset over the district’s firing of former Beverly Hills High School wrestling coach Ryan Faintich, who was terminated for shoving a student during a confrontation on campus. The proponents would have ultimately had to gather between approximately 4,000 and 4,200 signatures to be successful, according to BHUSD officials.

Faintich’s firing prompted an outpouring of support from the BHHS community. During a Nov. 22 board meeting, some speakers said they were eyewitnesses to the incident, and the boy who was shoved had previously bullied and struck a member of the wrestling team during an off-campus incident. Faintich was defending that student, they said.

Margo, however, said that no such instance had been reported to school officials. If Faintich had known of a student being bullied, he should have reported it to the administration rather than engage physically, he added.

Superintendent Dr. Michael Bregy also denounced Faintich’s actions.

“Initiating blatant aggressive and physical contact toward a student is never and will never be tolerated in the schools I am entrusted with,” he said.

Mark Shtrickman, whose son filed the notices of intention to recall the board members with the county registrar, saw things differently. According to Shtrickman, Faintich was standing up for a student who the district had failed to protect, despite widespread knowledge he was being bullied.

“I am very upset about the situation,” Shtrickman said. “[Faintich] did nothing wrong. He was trying to protect one of his students, something the school should have done.”

Shtrickman was not alone in his frustrations. According to the notice of intention, which was signed by nine other proponents, the three board members failed to ensure due process, uphold the district’s anti-bullying policies and disregarded the community’s concerns.

Margo and Wells refuted these characterizations, stating the board gave the community ample opportunity to defend Faintich, and adding that his termination was decided by Bregy, not the board.

Margo said that he learned the recall failed after contacting the country registrar in the first week of January, but he declined to comment further.

Shtrickman did not respond to requests for comment.