Jesse Hogopian leaving MLK rally to attend his son's 2nd birthday party
Another day, another
excessive use of force by Seattle police:
A high school teacher and activist is suing the city of Seattle, claiming police officers unlawfully pepper sprayed him as he left a peaceful rally on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Garfield High School, spoke during an MLK rally in Seattle and says he was on the phone while leaving the January 19th event. As Hagopian, a father of two, was walking to meet family, he says he was pepper sprayed by a Seattle police officer.
Watch police needlessly pepper spray Jesse Hagopian and other bystanders leaving the rally:
Hagopian is a
well-known teacher and community leader in Seattle:
Jesse Hagopian teaches history and is the co-adviser to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School, the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test in 2013. Jesse is the editor and contributing author of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing, an associate editor of the acclaimed Rethinking Schools magazine, a founding member of Social Equality Educators (SEE), a recipient of the 2012 Abe Keller Foundation award for “excellence and innovation in peace education,” and won the 2013 “Secondary School Teacher of Year” award and the Special Achievement “Courageous Leadership” award from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.
He says the incident will leave
lasting scars:
"The pain that shot through my face only lasted so long," Hagopian added, "but the painful memory is something that I don't know when will leave me or my family."