Civics Class Just Says No to Keeping Hernandez on Job

Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez may still have a job, but he’s lost the vote in April Perea’s U.S. government class.

April and her fellow honors students from Kennedy High School have followed the Hernandez firestorm daily for all its civic lessons about public trust and standards of conduct.

On Wednesday, the multiethnic collection of seniors--a microcosm of Los Angeles itself--issued a scathing, if unofficial, indictment of Hernandez and the political system that has allowed him to remain in office. And they were just as passionate in their arguments as the politicians and community activists debating Hernandez’s future.

“The people who are supposed to be controlling the drugs in society are doing the drugs,” began April, 17. Even before she could finish her comment about the Eastside councilman, a classmate broke in: “He’s a hypocrite.”

The students are using the Hernandez case as a kind of litmus test on how government works. To these novice political scientists, both Hernandez and the City Council have fallen woefully short of their expectations.

Echoing many of Hernandez’s City Hall critics, the students assailed what they see as a double standard for Hernandez, who has pleaded guilty to one count of cocaine possession but remains in his $98,000-a-year job. If he successfully completes the drug treatment program he has enrolled in, he will be able to avoid a felony conviction.

City employees caught with drugs in similar circumstances--Hernandez has admitted attending council meetings while high on cocaine--could be suspended without pay or fired, the students noted. So why not the same treatment for Hernandez?

The students also offered a pointed contrast between Hernandez and a Burbank high school teacher who was placed on administrative leave just last week after being arrested and charged with cocaine possession. Like Hernandez, teacher Richard Bedigan allegedly snorted the drug on the job, right in his classroom.

Hernandez, they have learned, has been allowed to keep his post because the city charter only permits the removal of council members for felony convictions.

“People in high places get to break the laws, but people on the streets are judged differently,” said Armin Shaverdian, 17. “That’s what is wrong with our government and our laws.”

The students also repeated the sentiments of Mayor Richard Riordan, who earlier this week called for Hernandez to resign, saying his guilty plea sends a “terrible, terrible message” to the city.

That message rang all too true with these students, who acknowledged they have wrestled with their own temptations. The Hernandez case, they said, points out that there are few real consequences for rolling a joint or sniffing a line of coke.

“I can do it once, be a first-time offender and be kickin’ back,” Armin said of the attitude created by the Hernandez case. “Get caught once and walk free.”

All but one of 29 students, including all 14 Latinos in the class, agreed that Hernandez should resign or be recalled. Indeed, Katrina Rosale found support for such a consequence in the writings of none other than Thomas Jefferson, one of the nation’s Founding Fathers: If the government is not responsive to the people, then the people have the right to abolish that government and institute a new one.

“If he is an important person, he should be held responsible for his actions,” Katrina said. “Personally, I don’t want someone to be making decisions for me who is all drugged out.”

The classroom’s lone voice in support of Hernandez, David Li, said the councilman made human mistakes that could be repeated by anyone.

“If he shows he has our best interests in mind, then we should cut him slack,” said David, 17.

“But he had drugs on the job,” Anthony Joseph, 17, shot back.

“He’s still a first-time offender,” David responded. “Under the law, we have to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

Teacher Kenny Thomason, 44, who routinely incorporates current events into his lessons, has devoted a portion of class each day to the continuing Hernandez saga.

Predicting that the political drama would ignite the passions of his students, he has asked whether Hernandez, as a policymaker, should be held to a different standard than the rank-and-file employees who work for the city. He’s framed the case as a labor issue, asking whether city employees who have been fired for similar offenses might have a legal case against their former employer.

He’s also asked his students if they believe a police officer, a firefighter and a City Council member should be treated differently in the same circumstances.

“It’s a fabulous case,” said Thomason, who spent 16 years working for the city as a lifeguard and pool manager. “It’s allowed me to present a lot of thought-provoking issues. We’re dealing with the character of elected officials.”

In the process, Thomason and his students have come up with a few proposals of their own.

If they occupied the City Council chamber, they said, they would try to change the city charter to hold council members accountable for such offenses. The students also would require drug tests for the city’s elected representatives.

Currently, city policy does not require drug tests for council members and city employees except those who operate heavy vehicles such as trash trucks. Certain classes of employees--including police officers and firefighters--are required to undergo drug screening before they are hired.

“As public officials, they should have a higher standard,” said Nestor Escobar, 17. “They were chosen to lead by example. Once they lose that example, they should be punished.”