2 Pasadena Teachers Accused of Misconduct

Two teachers in Pasadena’s public schools have been arrested after separate incidents in which one allegedly choked an 11-year-old boy and another is accused of inappropriately touching a 15-year-old girl in his classroom.

Lewis E. Underwood, 65, a teacher at Washington Middle School, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of corporal punishment after he allegedly tried to choke a boy in a locker room.

Truu “Richard” Hang, 33, a teacher at Marshall Fundamental School, was arrested the next day on suspicion of sexual battery.

Underwood was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of his case. Hang, as required by law, has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation, district officials said.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has declined to file a felony charge against Underwood, and it has referred the case to the city prosecutor’s office, which handles misdemeanors. Pasadena Police Cmdr. Mary Schander said the boy allegedly assaulted by Underwood told investigators that the 33-year veteran teacher “had placed both hands around the victim’s neck and picked him up off the ground by six to eight inches.”

Underwood allegedly grabbed the youth in the boys locker room about 2 p.m. after he heard the boy slamming his locker shut, Schander said. “The boy told investigators he slammed him up against the lockers holding his neck,” she said.

Underwood was arrested at his Monrovia home Thursday and released on $50,000 bail Friday. He declined to comment, but his attorney denied the allegation. “This is an easy way to destroy a man’s career. A man who has been on the job since the 1960s without a complaint,” Joe Hopkins said.

Hang was arrested after a female student alleged he touched her inappropriately below the waist during a math lesson Sept. 19.

Schander said police are interviewing several other students, who may be witnesses. “There are conflicting witness statements, and we are following up with several witnesses,” she said.

The girl told her parents of the alleged incident that day and the next day told a school counselor. Pasadena school police officers interviewed several witnesses Friday. Hang, a district teacher since 1995, was then called to the principal’s office, where the alleged victim performed a citizen’s arrest, district officials said. Such arrests are used in cases of misdemeanors in which an officer did not witness the alleged offense.

Hang was booked at the Pasadena Police Department jail and released on his own recognizance. He could not be reached for comment.

Pasadena schools Supt. Percy Clark Jr. said he takes the alleged incidents “extremely seriously.”

Spokesman Erik Nasarenko said, “This is a school district with nearly 2,000 teachers, the vast majority of whom serve students every day with distinction.”