By Stephen Oduntan
Contributing Writer
INGLEWOOD — When former Olympic 800-meter runner Johnny Gray learned that one of the young athletes he had been training would miss the May 16 California Interscholastic Federation track meet, his mind didn’t go to medals, rankings or recruiting.
“Number one, it’s costing A’Shari her senior year,” Gray said.
During a May 15 livestream outside St. Mary’s Academy, 17-year-old senior A’Shari Hobbs stood quietly beside her mother as community activist Najee Ali livestreamed their plea to supporters online.
If Hobbs was disappointed, she showed little emotion. Her mother, Elvira McBride, wearing dark sunglasses, struggled at times to hold back tears as she publicly apologized again for threatening remarks she made following an April 30 altercation involving her daughter and other students.
“There’s no excuse for my behavior,” McBride said. “This is not about me. It’s about what has been taken away from my daughter because of my actions.”
At the center of the controversy is Hobbs, a senior track athlete who says she was forced to complete the final weeks of her education remotely and barred from the prom, Grad Nite, on-campus activities and postseason competition — not because of her own conduct, but because of her mother’s actions.
Founded in 1889, St. Mary’s Academy is the oldest continuously operating Catholic high school in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
In a written statement, head of the school Brandi Odom Lucas said the school could not discuss details of the case “out of respect for the privacy of the minors involved and the integrity of pending legal proceedings.”
“The safety and well-being of our students, faculty and staff remain our highest priority,” Odom-Lucas said.
Emails, disciplinary records and school correspondence reviewed by The Wave show administrators explicitly told Hobbs the punishment was “not a result of A’Shari’s conduct,” but instead stemmed from threats allegedly made by her mother following an altercation between Hobbs and other students.
Ali said the punishment misses the mark.
“She’s essentially punishing a child for something an adult did,” Ali said. “And that doesn’t make any sense.”
Video of the April 30 altercation reviewed by a reporter appears to show Hobbs standing against a hallway wall as another student makes physical contact, escalating the confrontation before multiple students appear to join the fight.
For Hobbs, the hardest part was not only what she had already lost.
It was what she feared might still be taken away.
“I just want to be able to walk the stage,” Hobbs said during the May 15 livestream. “I’ve been here for four years. At least let me graduate with my class.”
Hobbs said she had trained since September and believed the May 16 CIF meet could have carried her deeper into the state championship rounds.
“I really thought I had a chance,” Hobbs said. “I worked so hard for this.”
Gray, whose track career began at Crenshaw High School and continued to Santa Monica College and Arizona State, is a four-time Olympian and the former holder of the U.S. record in the 800 meters. He said he personally trained Hobbs for nearly 18 weeks and described her as disciplined, coachable and gifted.
“She’s gutsy, and she’s a sweetheart,” Gray said.
The controversy later spread across Inglewood social media circles and onto a segment of KJLH’s Tammi Mac Show, where callers debated whether a student should lose senior-year privileges because of a parent’s conduct.
Though the races had already passed, Hobbs said one thing still mattered.
“I already can’t run,” she said. “I just want her to reconsider and let me walk the stage.”
Stephen Oduntan is a freelance writer for Wave Newspapers.
