Parents, students and community members gathered at a school board meeting Saturday to call for the reinstatement of a teacher at Synergy Quantum Academy in South Los Angeles who was recently terminated.
Chants of “bring back Mr. Lopez” filled the room as organizers argued that Ricardo Lopez was fired after opening a locked campus gate last month, allowing students to leave during a walkout protesting ICE raids.
“To protect his students, he did what any responsible adult would do when he’s seeing kids that are about to get hurt,” said Ron Gochez, an LAUSD teacher who attended Saturday’s meeting. “He protected them by opening the gate. The principals chose not to do the correct thing, but he did. So instead of supporting a teacher who supports and protects his students, they terminated him.”
The school disputes that account…