School Board Adjourns Abruptly

Centinela Valley Union High School District trustees abruptly adjourned their meeting this week after board critic Stennis Floyd announced that an unnamed board member had accused his son of a mugging outside Lawndale City Hall.

Floyd, who regularly attends board meetings and has been videotaping them for the past year and a half, spoke during the public comments section at the end of Tuesday night’s meeting. Floyd said that when he heard two weeks ago that a trustee had accused his son of the mugging, he “could have taken that person and ripped them right in half with no questions about it. . . . It still might come down that way.”

Board president Pam Sturgeon then told him his remarks were out of order. When Floyd continued to speak at the podium, Sturgeon recessed the meeting. “I don’t like adjourning these meetings,” she said later, “but as long as people continue to be out of order, I will.”

Two years ago, Sturgeon reported being attacked and robbed of her purse while on her way to a Lawndale Planning Commission meeting but has never publicly identified her attacker. In an interview Wednesday, Sturgeon said she recognized her assailant at a board meeting one year ago but decided against pursuing a complaint because she feared retaliation against her family. She declined to say whether it was Floyd’s son.

She also said she felt “definitely threatened” by Floyd’s remarks Tuesday and had spoken to a lawyer about his comments.