Trustees Dismiss Twice-Arrested Teacher

Trustees of the Fullerton School District voted in a closed school board session Tuesday night to dismiss a social studies teacher at D. Russell Parks Junior High who was twice arrested for lewd conduct. The vote was 4 to 1.

The teacher, King Steadman, 44, was placed on administrative leave until Friday, when he will receive formal notification of dismissal. Trustee Frederick T. Mason voted against the action.

School board officials refused Wednesday to discuss the grounds for Steadman’s firing, and Steadman, who has not taught classes this fall, was unavailable for comment. He was placed on paid sick leave in late August while trustees reconsidered his status at the school.

Trustee Robert C. Fisler said a number of parents showed up at an open meeting before the closed board session Tuesday and presented the trustees with a petition asking that Steadman not be allowed back in the classroom.

Steadman was arrested last fall at the Erotic Words and Pictures Bookstore in Fontana on suspicion of lewd conduct and indecent exposure. He later pleaded no contest to the lewd conduct charge and was sentenced to serve one day in jail and given two years’ probation, according to San Bernardino County court records.

In 1981, Steadman was arrested in the men’s restroom of Hillcrest Park in Fullerton on suspicion of lewd conduct. But that charge was dropped after Steadman pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace.

After his arrest last fall, Steadman was suspended from teaching for six months. But district officials never disclosed the arrests publicly and explained his suspension to a PTA official only as the result of a “morals problem.” Steadman was reinstated in April.

On Aug. 23, dozens of angry Fullerton parents packed a school board meeting and demanded to know why Steadman had been allowed to return to the classroom. But school board members refused to explain the suspension and reinstatement, citing privacy laws regarding personnel matters.

California law prohibits school districts from employing anyone convicted of a sex offense, but people who have pleaded no contest in such matters are not barred from school district employment. Both of Steadman’s convictions were on misdemeanor charges.

Times staff writer Nancy Wride contributed to this story.