Arrested Protesters Return for After School Teacher Rally

Police arrested dozens of people, including teacher's union president A.J. Duffy, during a protest rally in downtown Los Angeles.

The protesters. most of them teachers, were part of a planned sit-in at the district headquarters.

"We're being arrested to send a message to the district and the city that they have the money ... parents are going to be upset when they go to school next year and classrooms are 50 and 60 kids," said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, as he was being led away by police.


The protesters were arrested for blocking a public street, said Los Angeles Police Department Officer April Harding.

Officers searched the protesters, handcuffed them and loaded them onto an LAPD bus for processing.

The arrested protesters managed to make it back to LAUSD headquarters for a late afternoon after school rally, at which Duffy vowed to continue the fight.

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines said earlier he was pleased the union had agreed to abide by the court order and call off the one-day strike.

"We are united in our goal to educate our students," he said. "We have to start working together. A climate of us-versus-them hurts everyone, especially our students. I am committed to reaching out and personally working with Mr. Duffy to resolve any issues."

Duffy said the teacher's union called off the one day strike because of possible fines of $1000 to teachers and the loss of their teaching credentials.

Union supporters say the district could use federal stimulus dollars to save approximately 5,000 teachers pink slipped last month.

The district says it is already facing a $596 million deficit for the next school year, and that it needs to hold onto those federal funds.

Cortines apparently met with Duffy to talk about measures like work furloughs and salary freezes, but nothing was put into writing. So the standoff continues.

About 700 more teachers than usual called in sick today in the Los Angeles Unified School District. On a normal Friday in May, about 2,300 of the district's 34,000 teachers would be out of class.

The teachers' union Thursday requested hundreds of substitutes -- that it planned to pay for -- to allow selected teachers to leave class to participate in acts of civil disobedience, some of which were intended to lead to arrests.

Students have also joined the fray, walking out of class at several high schools and holding sit-ins in support of teachers.

About 500 students at Garfield High School in East L.A. walked out of campus this morning and sat in the central yard. Later, the students were moved to the bleachers, and a sound system was provided by the school so students could discuss why they didn't want teachers laid off.

The group dispersed after a break and about 150 returned to the bleachers afterward.

At Jordan High School in South L.A., some 200 students gathered in the quad to show their solidarity with teachers and another 200 at Maywood Academy in Maywood walked out of class.

Shortly after the nutrition bell rang at 11 a.m. at Franklin High School in Highland Park, hundreds of students chose not to return to their classrooms.

The school board voted last month to authorize thousands of layoffs, including teachers, to close an estimated $600 million budget deficit. The exact number of potential layoffs has been gradually lowering as district officials crunch numbers and offer early retirement packages to teachers and other employees.