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LOS ANGELES TIMES Saturday, September 1968 Student-Parent Sit-In Continuing on Weekend Protesters Cool to School Board Chief's Conciliation Move
By Jack McCurdy Times Education Writer
Mexican-American Students and parents vowed Friday to continue their day-old sit-in at the Board of Education through the weekend despite a conciliatory move by the board's president, the Rev. James E. Jones.
Mr. Jones promised the demonstrators he would urge the board on Monday to appoint an outside committee to study whether teacher Sal Castro should be returned to classroom duties at Lincoln High School.
But about 70 youths and adults rejected his proposal as insufficient and decided to remain in the board chambers duties after a board meeting.
School officials said the demonstrators could stay. Security guards said doors to the school district headquarters would be locked from 10 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Monday and that only two of the demonstrators would be allowed to leave and return during that time.
At 10 p.m., when Jack Redican, supervising security agent for the Board of Education, locked the doors, most of the 70 demonstrators remained inside.
The Negotiating Council, which represents most teachers in the city school system, proposed a policy which would return Castro to the classroom.
Refers to State Code
The council asked the board to abandon present practices and adopt procedures set forth in the state education code.
At present, teachers-like Castro-who are charged with felonies are relieved of classroom duties in the Los Angeles district until the charges are resolved in court.
But the education code calls for a teacher's removal from the classroom only when accused in court of a felony involving narcotics or morals.
The council pointed out that if the district prefers to charge a teacher, in such a case as Castro's, with violation of the education code, it may do so under present tenure law. But the teacher may remain in the classroom until the court decides the case.
In Castro's case, the district has taken no action against him for his role in the walkout of Mexican-American students at East Side high school last March.
The County Grand Jury, however, has indicted Castro on felony conspiracy charges for allegedly helping plan for the demonstrations.
Two week ago, the board voted 6 to 1 in secret session not to allow Castro back in the classroom while under felony indictment. He was transferred to a non-teaching job at no loss of salary.
Mr. Jones told a press conference the committee he proposes will serve a "function of dialogue and concilation" and would help "ease the tension and put the education process that is being fractured" back into normal operation.
Adults and college students are continuing to picket Lincoln High School to protest the removal of Castro.
About 65 demonstrators appeared just off the ground of Lincoln High School during the lunch hour Friday and handed out leaflets protesting Castro's dismissal. Their activity was peaceful, but their reception at the school was not friendly.
Several hundred students greeted them with the chant" "Go bathe, go shave, get your hair cut and go home.
Leaders of the student group told police they were members of Students Talk Against Militant Pressure.
Mr. Jones said he proposed creation of the committee because "no bureaucratic institution has the machinery to handle emergencies-the board notwithstanding."
The committee might accomplish things the board could not, he said, "because board people are personae non gratae in this issue." He described the proposal as "a radical departure from the way the board has acted before."
The Rev. Vahac Mardirosian, chairman of the Educational Issue Coordinating Committee, said his group of Mexican-Americans had planned to wind up the 10th day of picketing at Lincoln Friday by walking onto school grounds, inviting arrest.
But Thursday night, after he again had appealed to the board to reinstate Castro he said "the board's attitude was so negative and the temper of my people was such that I feared somebody could get hurt if we carried out our plans Friday in the presence of young people."
Instead, he decided on a sit-in "on the spur of the moment" to avoid going through with Friday's demonstration at Lincoln High.
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