Schoolyard Flap Nudges Lawmaker to Protect Trustees : Legislation: Sen. Cecil N. Green’s measure provides sterner penalties for assaults against board members.

Downey Unified school board member D. Mark Morris says John Gonzalez nudged him in the backside during an argument. Gonzalez says he did no such thing.

This much is certain: That one alleged blow sent shock waves all the way to the Legislature and likely will change state law.

The brief encounter on a Downey schoolyard last October became the genesis of legislation providing sterner penalties for assaults against school board members. The bill sits on Gov. Pete Wilson’s desk, where he is almost certain to sign it into law by month’s end.

Senate Bill 438 would make assault against a school board member with a Taser or stun gun punishable by up to four years in state prison. Assault with a deadly weapon could bring up to five years. Assault with a firearm could earn eight years in state prison. All of these penalties would be stiffer than those for assaults against other citizens.

The Oct. 6 incident that started it all involved no firearm, Taser or stun gun. The alleged weapon was a kneecap, and Gonzalez was accused of using it to nudge Morris.

The school board member had stopped by Columbus High, where an adult-league soccer game was in progress. He said he wanted to see if the league was abiding by district rules for using a school field.

“I went into the area and was looking around,” said Morris, who is also a housing planner for Downey. Gonzalez, a regular volunteer for the league, spotted Morris and the two then got into an argument about whether the field was being used properly.

Gonzalez says Morris walked away and nothing more happened. Morris says Gonzalez bid him adieu with a knee in the backside.

“I wasn’t hurt,” Morris said. “Not physically. But the touching was not consented to.” Morris complained to police, and prosecutors charged Gonzalez with one count of battery. If convicted, Gonzalez could have spent a year in jail.

In May, however, a jury found Gonzalez not guilty. The case boiled down to one man’s word against another’s, Morris said, creating doubt in the minds of jurors.

“Nothing happened,” Gonzalez said of the battery charge. “It was a frame-up. Anytime you know too much, the police harass you with the taxpayers’ money.”

But the incident was far from forgotten.

During their investigation, police found they could not charge Gonzalez under laws that carry stiffer penalties for assaults against school employees. The law did not recognize school board members as school employees.

Downey Unified officials contacted state Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk) for clarification.

“All we did was inquire as to why board members were not employees,” Supt. Edward Sussman said. But Sussman’s inquiry was enough to spur the legislator into action.

Green wrote a bill to give trustees the same protections as other school employees. Along the way, his staff members inadvertently prepared an exaggerated account of the alleged assault. By the time the bill reached the floor, the official legislative analysis of the soccer-field incident referred to “an assault with a deadly weapon” that went unpunished.

The legislation sailed through both houses this month without opposition.

Green said the bill corrects a small, but real, flaw in the state code.

“A school board member should not be treated any differently than any other (employee) of the school district,” Green said. “A school board member is a public official and the decisions they make may provoke ire, and you never know what someone is going to do. They would need more protection than the average person because they’re in the public eye.

“It could be a major benefit if there are a lot of assaults out there. It’s probably minor. . . . Downey is calm. I wouldn’t expect too much there. At least the protection is there.”

The legislation does not please Gonzalez, a retired contractor who is recognized locally for persistently questioning the actions of public officials, such as Morris, during City Council and school board meetings. Gonzalez said officials now have a new tool with which to harass the public.

Gonzalez’s attorney found the Legislature’s involvement and the whole scenario absurd.

“It’s ridiculous that they have to pass a law,” attorney Mike McDonnell said. He noted that a school board member would have protections accorded to any citizen. “A school person is still a person, what’s the difference? . . . My client could have received up to a year in County Jail. How much more do they want?

“I think there are other problems out there that are probably more important, like the deficit or child molesters. They just waste a lot of paper making all these laws.”

Morris said he is pleased with the Legislature’s action. “It lets certain people know that their actions will have consequences, not just a slap of the wrist.

“This is not to say people won’t have disagreements. But they’re on notice now that they have to be of verbal, not a physical, nature.”