Teacher’s Case Stirs Turmoil in Compton

A high school teacher’s account of being drenched with excrement by students became tangled in bitter political infighting within the Compton Unified School District on Friday.

Two members of the Compton school board, which has had its authority virtually eliminated since state education officials took over the beleaguered district in 1993, lashed out at district administrators who they said tried to discredit the teacher’s reputation. They also accused the district of systematically covering up such violence to protect its image.

In a hastily called news conference, board President Saul Lankster and member Basil Kimbrew asserted their belief in teacher Shannan Barron’s account and pledged $10,000 in personal funds as reward for information leading to the attackers’ arrest and conviction.

A district spokeswoman said she could release no new information about the incident, which she had said Thursday could not be confirmed by school police. She dismissed the board members as malcontents.

First-year teacher Barron triggered the firestorm Thursday by complaining publicly that four students had accosted her outside her Dominguez High School classroom Wednesday morning and emptied two wastebaskets of feces on her. She said fecal matter had been left in her classroom two other times.

Joining the two board members with an attorney at her side, Barron, 28, rebuked school officials for casting doubt on her story.

Barron said she was certain the attackers were Dominguez students, despite district suggestions Thursday that the youths may not have been students at all. And she decried the lack of security.

Her attorney, L’tanya M. Butler, said a decision had not been made on whether to file a lawsuit.

Butler also represented Lankster and Kimbrew in a lawsuit attempting to regain control of the district from the state Department of Education, which took it over in 1993 because of financial shortcomings. Although board members are still elected and conduct regular meetings, their decisions are subject to review by state administrator Randolph E. Ward.

Sharply escalating criticisms of district officials she made Thursday, Barron charged Friday that she had been treated in a “disgusting” manner by the district’s workers’ compensation provider. She also said she was being pressured to back off from pressing her claims.

“People have called and told me to shut up, leave it alone, let it die, let the district take care of it,” she said.

One of those calls, she said, was from a man who identified himself as a workers’ compensation representative for the district.

“My family is outraged. The community is outraged,” she said.

Barron also accused school police of bungling the investigation by releasing a youth she identified as one of her assailants.

Barron’s mother, Alicia Browne, also lashed out at school police, saying that an officer who interviewed Barron tried to minimize the quantity of material dumped on her.

Board President Lankster, a limousine driver, said he was angered that district officials failed to notify him of the incident, which he learned of on television. He said he decided to become involved when a school administrator complained to him that the district was trying to cover up it up.

Lankster and Kimbrew contend that the state has failed to provide funds for needed maintenance and security.

Lankster also said the district’s workers’ compensation provider, Advantage Care, has proved unsatisfactory to the board, which voted unanimously at its last meeting to terminate the district’s contract. However, that vote was overruled by Ward, Lankster said.

In her comments Friday, Barron said the Advantage Care physician who treated her Wednesday gave her vaccinations and “signed a paper that I was ready to return to work.”

“They have treated you as if you were the victimizer,” Lankster said. “We regret that. We resent that. We apologize to you.”

District spokeswoman Vivien Hao said that Lankster and Kimbrew are not authorized to speak for the district because the board’s role is now only advisory.

Administrator Ward could not be reached for comment Friday, but Hao handed out a statement from him that said: “We are taking this matter very seriously.”

Hao had said Thursday that no witnesses could be found to corroborate Barron’s account despite the presence of several other teachers and students outside her classroom at the time of the alleged attack.

Barron said there were 15 to 20 witnesses and conceded that she could not explain their silence.

“The only thing I can gather is fear or not wanting to get involved,” she said.

Compton city police began their own investigation into the incident Friday but declined comment.

However, a source close to the investigation told The Times that school police could find no evidence of fecal matter when they arrived at the school.

“With fecal matter, that’s going to be all over the place. It’d be on the floor, on the door,” the source said.

Barron reasserted Friday that the attack was real and that she was splashed all over her body, including her face and hair.

“The stink is terrible,” she said. “I can’t get the smell out of my nose. I’m at the point where I can’t even bear to change my son’s diapers.”

Police had yet to take possession of Barron’s soiled clothing Friday; her mother said Barron had declined a previous police request to turn over the clothes Thursday evening because the officers seemed too casual.

Barron said she has received several vaccinations against bacterial disease and must undergo HIV testing for a year.

Times staff writer Jeff Leeds contributed to this story.