Overview
- Long Beach Unified said the employee was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a personnel investigation.
- The image, shared in a union bargaining-team group chat in May, showed a mock “My First Ankle Monitor” package with a Black child and the caption, “We need this for our runners.”
- Teachers described “runners” as a derogatory nickname for special education students who tend to wander away.
- The teacher was identified as John Solomon, a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at MacArthur Elementary and a Teachers Association of Long Beach leader, who has denied sending the image and claimed his phone was hacked.
- An internal TALB commission reportedly found the hacking claim not credible, while elected officials condemned the message and teachers launched a recall effort.