Former Counselor Faces Arrest if He Appears on Campus Again : Gardena: William Partridge had been working for the athletic department as an unpaid football coach. He pleaded no contest earlier this year to two counts of battery against a female student.

A former Gardena High School counselor, who has been coaching football at the school while on probation for inappropriately touching a 15-year-old student, will be arrested for trespassing if he returns to campus, school officials said.

William Partridge, 60, who pleaded no contest earlier this year to two counts of battery against a female student, has stirred a campus controversy by showing up at the school at least three times since September.

The retired counselor returned at the invitation of members of the athletic department to work as an unpaid football coach, Principal John Howard said. Howard, asserting he had been unaware of the arrangement, said he has told athletic officials that Partridge must not be allowed on campus.

Partridge, who could not be reached for comment, was sentenced in April to three years of probation, psychological counseling and 45 days of freeway cleanup.

Partridge’s appearance on school grounds did not violate his probation, but Michele Anderson, the deputy city attorney who prosecuted the case, told school officials that “it would be in good prudent judgment to keep him off the campus,” Howard said.

Bilingual teacher Judie Stensland, a representative for United Teachers-Los Angeles, said Partridge’s presence was a “very volatile issue on campus because he has many, many friends here who do not believe he is guilty or that he has done anything wrong.”

Stensland said she received complaints about Partridge’s return from three teachers, but that “for the three people who approached me, I can find you 30 who will tell you he’s a fine man and that this was a terrible travesty.”

One of the teachers who complained about Partridge, however, said most of his supporters are in the athletic department, where he had worked as a coach during his tenure at the school. The veteran teacher, requesting anonymity, expressed outrage that the school’s football coaches had invited him back.

“There’s something about these athletic departments that make them sacred cows at the schools,” the teacher said. “These coaches think they can get away with anything.”

Howard, who became Gardena High principal in August, said he had not been aware of the case when a teacher first informed him in September that Partridge had been seen coaching again at the campus.

Two days later, Howard saw Partridge on campus and advised him to stay off the school grounds until district officials could review the matter.

“I told him to stay off campus until I received a legal opinion from the staff relations office” on whether he could be barred from the campus, Howard said.

Nevertheless, Partridge was photographed coaching football at the school last week by a local newspaper.

Howard, saying he was surprised by the coach’s reappearance on campus, has since sent Partridge a letter informing him that he will be arrested for trespassing if he shows up again. “I don’t think he will be back,” Howard said.

The girl who accused Partridge of touching her is no longer enrolled at Gardena High, Howard said. She told school officials that Partridge fondled her breasts and buttocks through her clothing several times between September and November of last year.

The terms of Partridge’s probation forbid him from associating with anyone under 18 years of age, except under the supervision of a responsible adult, said Susan Zimber, a Los Angeles deputy city attorney who supervises the downtown criminal branch.

Although Partridge’s coaching activities do not violate his probation, city prosecutors may try to modify the terms if he returns to campus, Zimber said.

“If this (the threat to arrest him for trespassing) works (at keeping him off campus) then we won’t go back to court,” Zimber said. “But if it doesn’t, we will have to consider it.”