A MacArthur Elementary School teacher accused of sending an image of a Black child wearing an ankle bracelet in a text thread with other educators has been placed on administrative leave as the district conducts an investigation, a spokesperson for the Long Beach Unified School District said today.
The teacher, John Solomon, has said he did not send the message and that his phone was hacked. A small investigative team appointed by the teachers union found that his claim was “simply not credible,” according to the team’s conclusions, which were reviewed by the Long Beach Post.
The district had previously punted on investigating Solomon, saying the message, which was sent in a group chat for the union’s contract bargaining team, fell “outside the scope of the District’s authority to investigate,” according to records reviewed by the Post.
The Post first reported the existence of the text-message chain in a story published Tuesday. Since then, demands for the district to act mounted. Yesterday, state Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) released a public statement pressuring LBUSD to dig deeper.
“A thorough investigation ensures our school communities know that any discriminatory or ableist behavior from staff will be met with accountability and full transparency,” she said in an email to the Long Beach Post.
Other local leaders, including the mayor, two City Council members and a member of the Long Beach Unified school board, previously pushed Solomon to resign from his position on the executive board of the Teachers Association of Long Beach, where they say he’s become a distraction for members trying to negotiate a new contract.
In a statement sent to the MacArthur parents before 1 p.m. today, the district said it is “taking the matter seriously” and actively investigating the situation. The statement also included the district’s commitment to following nondiscrimination board policies and state and federal laws to provide “a safe, inclusive, and nondiscriminatory learning environment for all students and staff.”