Video shows school Oakland board member’s hand on throat of teacher at picket line
Teachers formed a picket line around an elementary school where school board members were scheduled to vote on budget cuts.
OAKLAND — A video circulating social media shows Oakland school board member Jumoke Hinton-Hodge trying to push past a crowd of picketing teachers and putting a hand on the throat of a teacher while trying to enter La Escuelita Elementary School for a scheduled board meeting Friday.
Darnisha Wright, a kindergarten teacher at Markham Elementary School, identified herself to this news organization as the teacher in the video.
“My neck and throat hurts, and my head is pounding. I may have went to the hospital if I didn’t have a (more than) 100-page tentative agreement to read, understand and vote on within 24 hours,” Wright said via Facebook Messenger. “The vote won’t wait for me to get better.”
Hinton-Hodge issued a statement Saturday afternoon apologizing to Wright. She said she was “pushed to the ground, briefly disoriented, and tried to get back up,” when she realized she was “inadvertently pushing up against a teacher’s neck.”
“I would never have intentionally touched another person or a sister in that way, and I CONTINUE READING: Video: Oakland trustee grabbing picketing teacher's throat
