CITIZEN'S ARREST MAY LEAD TO ALL-OUT WAR WITH THE TEACHERS UNION

Bob Walsh says, “Yeah, that doesn’t happen every day, but it did recently during a little set-to in the normally quite Lodi Unified School District.”

A little bump, seen by the police as a minor incident, led to a citizen’s arrest that may lead to an all-out war with the powerful teachers union.

SCHOOL BULLYING ALLEGATION TAKES BIZARRE TWIST
District to look into claim by vice principal against teacher

By Keith Reid

The Stockton Record
December 28, 2011

LODI - Lodi Unified officials will return in the New Year to investigate a bizarre situation stemming from the citizen's arrest of a middle school teacher by a school administrator.

Lodi Middle School Vice Principal Lurdes Rosales called police on Dec. 20, a day after she alleged that teacher Jon Lapachet "bumped" her during a class-time altercation, Lodi Police Lt. Fernando Martinez said.

Martinez said Lapachet, 58, was taken to the police station and later released on a misdemeanor battery citation.

Police consider the incident to be a "minor" one, Martinez said.

But the way it was reported - by school site administrators, who decided overnight to have Lapachet arrested instead of reporting the incident to the district office - could represent a breach of contract with the teachers union and could lead to a lengthy legal battle.

Union President Jeff Johnston said the citizen's arrest was taken by Rosales and Principal Patricia Lingerfelt "outside of protocol," and it was "highly unorthodox."

Johnston said the union has referred Lapachet to legal counsel. Neither the teacher nor the union is commenting until a school district investigation takes place and the issue moves through the courts. The district's investigation will not begin until after the two-week winter break, Trustee President Ron Heberle said. Classes resume Jan. 9.

"We are hoping the district attorney drops the case," Johnston said.

A message left at Lapachet's home was not returned.

The Record could not reach Lingerfelt or Rosales for comment, but both opened up about the incident last week to the Lodi News-Sentinel.

Rosales said that Lapachet blew a whistle in her ear during a physical-education class, and then bumped into her as he walked past her, forcing her to stumble. The incident was one of many acts of insubordination, Rosales said.

According to the newspaper article, Lingerfelt compared the vice principal's decision to make a citizen's arrest to the 1955 civil rights stand Rosa Parks took when she refused to sit in the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala.

"The real story is why Mrs. Rosales exercised her right as an individual to make a citizen's arrest of an individual she believes committed an injustice to her," Lingerfelt said. "She knowingly put everything on the line, her career, professionalism, savings, character and integrity, to stand up for what she believes, to stand alone against one of the strongest labor unions in our nation, the California Teachers Association."