Fliers folded to look like $100 bills were scattered through the residential streets around Glenoaks Elementary School in Glendale, and when residents and children unfolded them, they found a slur and a message reading “THIS IS AMERICA NOT STUPID ARMENIA.” The Glendale Police Department is investigating the materials as a hate incident, and the discovery lands just as the school begins the nation's first Western Armenian dual-language immersion program.
According to Asbarez, the fliers were designed to mimic folded $100 bills specifically to entice passersby, including children, into picking them up. Once opened, they displayed the slur “STUPIDIANS” rendered in the colors of the Armenian flag alongside the anti-Armenian phrase. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, whose reporting on the incident was authored by Stacy Perman, Glendale police contacted the Glendale Unified School District after officers found the offensive materials near the school, and the district said it was already aware of the situation.
Police said they are working to understand the motive behind the fliers and to identify whoever is responsible, but investigators have not yet established whether the materials rise to the level of a prosecutable crime. Glendale police did not publicly describe the specific language or images used on the fliers, though the department said conduct that reasonably causes fear or concern would be thoroughly investigated. The school district said it is assisting police where appropriate, and police described Glendale as a diverse community while working through the case.
A Program Years in the Making, Threatened by Hate
Glenoaks Elementary began its Western Armenian dual-language immersion program this month, a milestone local officials have described as the first of its kind in the United States. The Glendale Unified School District Board of Education unanimously approved the school as the site for the program in June, making it the district's eighth Dual Language Immersion, or FLAG, program overall, per the district's own announcement.
Lucy Petrosian, chair of the grassroots advocacy group ANCA Glendale, said the community worked for years to make the program a reality. “Children deserve to learn their language, celebrate their heritage and feel safe doing so,” Petrosian said, per reporting from the Los Angeles Times. ANCA Glendale has also reported that vandalism has occurred at Armenian schools in the Los Angeles area and that anti-Armenian material has been left at churches and community centers across the region, according to the same account.
Why Hate Incidents Don't Always Become Hate Crimes
Under California guidelines and Glendale Police Department criteria, offensive speech or displays motivated by bias are generally classified as non-criminal hate incidents rather than prosecutable hate crimes, according to the City of Glendale. That distinction means investigators must find additional criminal conduct, such as threats of violence, assault, or vandalism, before charges can be filed. Police have said they will take action appropriately based on what their investigation uncovers, but as of now the fliers alone have not been determined to meet that bar.
This is not the first time anti-Armenian propaganda has surfaced in the region. In March 2023, fliers promoting genocide denial and violence were posted on light poles near St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church and other public areas in Glendale, prompting a police hate crime investigation, according to the Armenian Mirror-Spectator. Two months earlier, in January 2023, fliers advocating military action against Armenia were taped to poles in Beverly Hills and along a protest route in Westwood, sparking an investigation by the Beverly Hills Police Department, as reported by the Beverly Press & Park Labrea News.
A Community at the Center of a Growing Trend
Glendale is home to one of the largest Armenian communities outside Armenia itself, and Los Angeles County overall hosts the second-largest Armenian diaspora population in the world, making the city a demographic and cultural anchor for the community in the United States. That significance has coincided with a troubling statistical trend: reported hate crimes and hate acts against Armenians in LA County surged 200% between 2021 and 2022, according to data from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations cited by The California Courier.
In response to that rise, the Truth And Accountability League partnered with the county's human relations commission and LA vs Hate in March 2024 to launch public service campaigns featuring Glendale Police Chief Manny Cid, encouraging confidential reporting of anti-Armenian bias. Community advocates and county officials had also convened an anti-racism town hall at the Glendale Central Library in May 2023 specifically to address the earlier wave of flyer incidents.
How to Report Concerns
Following the discovery of the fliers this month, Glendale Unified School District urged families to report bias incidents through its anonymous tip line at 323-999-6062 or through gusd.net/tipline, and the district announced it is forming a community advisory committee tied to the immersion program. Glendale police have said any conduct reasonably causing fear or concern in connection with the case will be investigated thoroughly as the department continues working to determine whether the fliers, or any related conduct, ultimately meet the threshold for criminal charges.
