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| Teacher Kills Rabbit |
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| Source |
| A teacher at Gage Middle School in Huntington Park, California, charged with animal cruelty, will be tried July 9, 2001, in division four of the Huntington Park courthouse. Forty-seven year old teacher. Godwin Onunwah, allegedly suffocated a young rabbit in a plastic bag in a classroom experiment. The class Mr. Onunwah was teaching was a Special Education class, and the rabbit was the pet of one of the students. Afterwards, the students were disturbed enough for the principal to ask the LASPCA to come in to lead special assemblies teaching humane education to the students. According to charges filed, Onunwah placed the rabbit in a plastic bag, tied the bag shut and placed it in front of the class waiting for the rabbit to die in order to perform an experiment on its corpse. The rabbit did not die by the end of the school day. The teacher then put the rabbit in a closet and left for the weekend. The rabbit was found dead on Monday morning. A previous trial ended in a hung jury. If convicted, Onunwah faces a penalty of one year in jail and/or a $20,000 fine. Despite the fact that the teacher had chosen the lesson of the day to be "murder", the school district only reassigned him to their district office with no suspension. The DA's office sidestepped the wealth of evidence pointing to a felony indictment and chose to file the lesser misdemeanor charges. To date, there have been four prosecutors on this case with varying degrees of compassion and tenacity. The initial hung jury was probably the result of a lot of factors, including a lack of intensity by the prosecution. lease write a letter to the present attorney as requested below. Please also contact the school district asking them how they can justify harboring this disturbed individual anywhere within OUR school district. Prosecuting Attorney Ken Von Helmont 2958 East Florence Huntington Park, CA 90255 (No fax, no email) If you are in the area and can attend the trial, it will be held at the Huntington Park Municipal Court. Roy Romer Superintendent of Schools Superintendent's Office 450 N. Grand Ave. Room A-223 Los Angeles, CA 90012 Phone: (213) 625-6251 Fax: (213) 485-0321 Email: [email protected] Local District J- Gage's District Dale Vigil Superintendent AT&T Center Floor 36 611 West 6th Street Los Angeles, CA 90017 Phone: (213) 599-5900 Fax: (213) 627-7266 Sara Luque City Council Secretary Phone: (323) 584-6220 Email: [email protected] To contact the Los Angeles City Attorney: Email: [email protected] To contact the Los Angeles District Attorney: Email [email protected] Additionally, William Coleman is working with Bill Dyer of IDA on this case. William would appreciate receiving hard copies of any and all letters that you send so that he can provide these to the DA. William Coleman 1450 N. Gardner Street Hollywood, CA 90046 Phone: 323.850.0587 Fax: 323.850.0592 Email: [email protected] |
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