The Brief

Teachers in Los Angeles are calling on community members to help students get safely to and from school. The request comes as the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign continues and as many campuses reopen.

For families in L.A. Unified, the new school year will begin on Wednesday, Aug. 12. Ahead of that date, educators this week held a news conference in front of the district’s headquarters in downtown L.A. where they announced two upcoming trainings: one for all school employees and another for community members at large.

“Our students are why we exist as educators. We owe them more than an education . . . We owe them a school where they feel safe to learn, to dream, to thrive — just like the children of those ICE agents, just like the children of those who are initiating these policies,” said Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona, a member of United Teachers of Los Angeles and an English language development coordinator at the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center in Westlake.

At the news conference, Cardona was joined by colleagues who form part of Unión del Barrio, a grassroots organization founded in San Diego. Armed with megaphones and walkie-talkies, volunteers patrol neighborhoods and warn community members about the presence of federal immigration agents.

Ron Gochez, a history teacher at Dr. Maya Angelou Community Senior High in South L.A., emphasized the context in which students must make their way to class. Last summer, the Supreme Court stayed a lower court order that barred federal agents from targeting people based on factors like perceived race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or “speaking English with an accent.” Critics say the majority effectively green lit racial profiling.

“This is not business as usual. The kids have suffered tremendously,” Gochez said, noting that some of his students’ family members and neighbors have been detained and deported.

“The way we keep students and parents safe, before school and after school, is by being on the streets,” added Ingrid Villeda, a teacher at 93rd Street Elementary in South L.A.

Villeda also urged Angelenos to continue documenting arrests with their phones.

“We need everyone out, and we need everyone ready to record,” she said.

Upcoming trainings  

• For the general public, there will be an in-person training at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at the United Teachers Los Angeles building. Address: 3303 Wilshire Blvd., 10th floor, Los Angeles

• For people who work at schools — including teachers, administrators, bus drivers, campus aides, custodians and office staff — there will be an online training at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 14. To participate, you must register online.

On Sept. 17, 2017, California Highway Patrol officer Nathaniel Partridge checked in his patrol car almost four hours before his shift ended and drove 35 miles home. That day, and on at least two other occasions, he was paid overtime for the hours he didn’t work.

Partridge wasn’t alone. Dozens of CHP officers at an East Los Angeles patrol division routinely did the same while working traffic enforcement details on highway construction sites. On paper, the practice had been forbidden for five years, but no one objected until a 2019 audit.

“I took the chance to go home and would fall on the consequence if I was called back,” Partridge told CHP investigators, according to court documents.

The result was the smallest patrol division in Southern California running up an overtime tab that was three times that of the region’s largest division, according to the internal audit. That finding led CHP to drop the hammer on the East LA station 2020, when it moved to dismiss dozens of officers, including Partridge.

This week, after Partridge’s case lingered for six years through state personnel hearings, a Justice Department investigation and trial court, a California appeals court found that a one-year suspension without pay was appropriate discipline, over the objections of the California Highway Patrol, which wanted him fired.

David Mastagni, Partridge’s lawyer, said the ruling “reflects fundamental fairness.”

“Accountability and second chances are not in conflict,” Mastagni said.

No one — not CHP administration, the personnel board, nor the officer himself — dispute what happened: Partridge was paid $288.98 for three hours and 45 minutes of overtime he didn’t work, which investigators alleged was part of a long-running grift at the East LA station to fabricate overtime hours.

Partridge and dozens of other officers were fired in 2020, according to the appeals court decision.

In February 2022, Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a total of 302 criminal counts against 54 officers, alleging they had collectively defrauded the public of more than $200,000.

Those charges didn’t last long. In December 2022, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge offered the officers a deal: Their charges would be reduced from felonies to misdemeanors and then dismissed if they repaid the money.

Fifty-two officers took that deal, The Sacramento Bee reported at the time.

The Highway Patrol called Partridge's actions “inexcusable neglect of duty, dishonesty (and) misuse of state property” when the organization fired him. When Partridge appealed, the State Personnel Board said it was “self-enrichment at the expense of the public’s trust,” but handed down a one-year suspension instead.

Partridge’s bosses found that discipline insufficient, and the CHP asked a California district court judge to override the suspension and reinstate the firing, saying the personnel board abused its discretion in reducing the penalty. The judge denied that petition, siding with the personnel board.

According to his superiors quoted in court documents, Partridge was a good cop. His evaluations recommended him for promotion and his disciplinary record was clean. But the administration at the California Highway Patrol argued at the State Personnel Board and in court that his conduct compromised his integrity.

This week, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals agreed with the district court judge: The State Personnel Board didn’t overstep its bounds in handing down a one-year suspension.

“A reasonable decisionmaker could have dismissed Partridge, and a reasonable decisionmaker could have—and did—impose a one-year suspension without pay,” the court found.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

For years, roughly 700 beds at Cal State Los Angeles that could be occupied by students have sat empty, even in what officials call a “highly housing challenged area.” The reason? Officials say lack of funding and deferred maintenance.

The out-of-commission resource has languished despite the California State University 2025 Systemwide Housing plan stating there’s a need for about 500 beds at the campus.

“The deferred maintenance happened over a period of several years, under previous leadership for the university and housing,” Erik Hollins, a spokesperson for the university, told LAist in a statement. “The pandemic certainly appears to have been a factor. Addressing accumulated maintenance and then getting those units back in circulation has been a focus of new leadership.”

Housing and Residence Life (HRL), which is responsible for maintenance, runs independent of university operations but reports to the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. The department has its own budget with funding coming from the rent and meal plans students pay for.

In the most recent housing budget posted online, from the fiscal year 2024-25, no funds were allocated to maintenance. LAist has requested housing budgets for 2025-26 and 2026-27.

It’s not just the beds out of circulation that need maintenance. Cal State L.A.’s student-run news organization reported earlier this year that “work orders for maintenance by those residents have gone unanswered for months, or even in some cases for several consecutive semesters.”

Hollins told LAist there’s demand for housing on campus in addition to modernizing older facilities. Some of the housing that isn’t being used was built in 1984 to house athletes during the Los Angeles Olympics.

“Under new housing leadership, we are reengaging with our Cal State L.A. students on the benefits of living on campus, resolving perception issues around deferred maintenance, and seeking new partnerships with local colleges, universities, and community organizations,” Hollins wrote.

Hollins added that the university is located in a “highly housing challenged area, while also serving a majority of students who live with their families in the immediate surrounding area.”

Cal State LA’s housing troubles

In 2025, auditors reported years of operating losses at Cal State L.A.’s housing program, leading to reserves being depleted.

Auditors noted that occupancy has dropped to as low as 60% in recent years, and student housing required “unanticipated emergency repairs.” Responding to the audit, Cal State L.A.’s director of housing wrote that the university had taken “sweeping corrective measures.”

“Because its apartment complexes are aging, HRL has also been forced to pay for unanticipated emergency repairs and planned maintenance projects that have challenged its budget,” auditors wrote. “These repairs were partially due to HRL not prioritizing deferred maintenance projects during the COVID-19 recovery. There are also ongoing issues with the water system and fan coil breaks at the newer South Village residence hall.”

At the time, Cal State L.A. said it would address the issues by “implementing short-term strategies to boost occupancy rates, student engagement, and facility upgrades, along with long-term strategies to renovate its older facilities and improve affordability.”

The university also said it would partner with community colleges, expand summer conference programs and require first year students to live on campus. In response to the audit, Cal State L.A. also promised facility renovations.

Westminster City Councilmember Amy Phan West caught a break after she was accused of attempting to bribe parking officers who were about to tow her husband's car: A judge ordered her to take an ethics training course and do 20 hours of community service. In exchange, the charge would be dropped.

One year later, Phan West is poised to run for reelection. But the Orange County District Attorney's Office says she has learned nothing from her brush with the law and is asking the judge to revoke the deal and send the case to trial.

In a recent court filing, Deputy District Attorney Matthew Bradbury gave examples of what he called Phan West’s “repeated and ongoing misuse of her official position” to argue that the councilmember hadn’t accepted responsibility for the alleged crime or taken the mandatory ethics training to heart.

“The Defendant’s actions only serve to undermine the public’s faith in the justice system,” Bradbury wrote, adding that they “warrant no leniency.” In the past, Phan West has denied wrongdoing and said she is being unfairly targeted for for being outspoken.

LAist called and left a text message on Phan West’s phone requesting comment on the DA’s recent filing. LAist also sent an email to Phan West’s defense attorney, Randy Collins. We will update this story if and when we get a response.

What the court records say

In the filing, Bradbury, the deputy district attorney, said that in the year since Phan West was charged with attempted bribery, she appears to have repeatedly violated rules intended to bar local officials from using public resources for campaign activities. She also mocked the case against her, Bradbury said, showing no sense of accountability.

The DA’s examples of Phan West’s alleged continued ethics violations include:

• At Westminster’s annual Tet parade in February, Phan West handed out flyers for her Congressional race — a potential violation of rules against local officials using public resources for campaign activities. (Phan West lost in the June primary.)  
  
• In May, Phan West gave a media interview about her Congressional run from her Westminster City Council office, a potentially similar violation. 
  
• Phan West has repeatedly downplayed the criminal charge against her and disparaged the legal process in public comments and social media posts. In response to a question at a candidate forum, she called it a “jungle-like court” and compared her legal problems to the President’s. “Like how they’re doing it to Donald J. Trump — it’s the same thing they’re doing to take me out,” Phan West said, according to the court filing. 

What happened at city hall?

Phan West has repeatedly clashed with the majority of her council colleagues in recent years. In 2024, the council officially censured Phan West for behavior that allegedly included improperly disclosing confidential information and lying. The city later sued Phan West and allied councilmember NamQuan Nguyen for repeatedly disrupting meetings and creating a “dysfunctional and raucous” atmosphere.

Phan West has accused her opponents on the City Council of violating her right to free speech and waging a personal vendetta against her.

What's next?

Phan West officially filed papers earlier this week to run for re-election to Westminster City Council in November.

A hearing to determine whether Phan West has complied with previous court orders in the case so far is scheduled for Aug. 11 in O.C. Superior Court in Westminster.