Teaching Assistant Arrested for Trespassing
A teaching assistant was arrested and booked for trespassing after Thursday’s melee in which striking assistants took over the Los Angeles Unified School District boardroom.
Union organizer Kenneth Fujimoto, 38, of Inglewood was released on $250 bail later that day, according to Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which is negotiating its first contract for 10,000 teaching assistants.
Fujimoto allegedly walked into a building that had been blocked off by about 20 district police, said Los Angeles Unified Police Chief Wesley Mitchell. He then ran upstairs into a phone booth and had to be forcibly removed, Mitchell said.
Friday marked Day 3 of a “rolling strike” by Local 99. Union officials said about 2,000 assistants at 119 schools failed to report for work. The district put the figure at 600 assistants at 45 schools. On Monday, Local 99 plans to strike 117 schools in South-Central Los Angeles, West Los Angeles and the San Pedro-Wilmington area.
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