Widow of Slain Teacher Adds $10,000 to Reward Fund

Frustrated by a five-month police investigation that appears to have stalled, the widow of slain high school teacher Hal Arthur offered $10,000 Friday for information leading to a conviction in the killing, increasing the total reward in the case to $60,000.

“I’d like to help if I could; I would sell my house if I had to,” Virginia Arthur said. Her husband, a popular teacher at Grant High School in Van Nuys, was shot to death with a semiautomatic weapon as he left his Sherman Oaks home for school March 24.

In June, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the United Teachers-Los Angeles union and state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) each contributed $10,000 to a reward fund.

During a news conference at which Virginia Arthur announced her contribution, Robbins also said he would contribute $10,000 more from his campaign funds. UTLA President Wayne Johnson pledged $5,000 from the teachers union, and school board member Roberta Weintraub, who represents the east San Fernando Valley, gave $5,000.

Los Angeles Police Lt. Dennis Dunn said he hopes that the higher reward will help investigators. “We’re just about at a standstill on it now,” he said. “We’re in the dark--baffled.”

Although police have not determined whether students were involved in her husband’s killing, Arthur said one result of his death is greater public awareness of the dangers teachers face.

Robbins said the 1988-89 school year was marked by an unprecedented amount of violence against teachers, and Johnson concurred.

“Every day that school is in session in this city, a teacher is assaulted,” Johnson said.

The Teacher Protection Act, which Robbins authored, has cleared the Senate and is pending in the Assembly.