A Long Beach Unified teacher has retired after a months-long investigation by the school district concluded he sent a racist and ableist message that sparked a wave of public backlash, “impairing his effectiveness as a teacher and undermining the integrity of the LBUSD school system.”
These findings, reported here for the first time publicly, were contained in a March 19 report about the district’s investigation into MacArthur Elementary School teacher John Solomon. The report, based on findings from an outside law firm, concluded Solomon’s message “belittled students of color and students with disabilities,” according to a copy of the report reviewed by the Long Beach Post.
Solomon was a member of the teachers union’s bargaining committee when accusations surfaced in the fall that he’d sent an offensive meme to his fellow committee members. The message showed a cartoon image of a Black child wearing an ankle monitor with the message, “we need this for our runners!” — which other teachers said was a reference to special education students who sometimes run from campus…