June 1, 2005. Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Ted Dallas (above, center) talks with irate union members including School Clerk Delegates Maureen Callaghan (left) and Schurz High School Delegate Lois Jones (right) after someone from the CTU leadership tried to have former CTU President Deborah Lynch arrested. The verbal and sometimes physical attacks on Lynch during Marilyn Stewart’s first term (2004-2007) have long been compared to the dirty tricks conjured up for the Bush Administration in Washington, D.C., by Karl Rove. Of all the dirty tricks, the nastiest came with the arrest of Lynch, who was escorted out of the House meeting by two armed Chicago police officers. At the time, several observers believed that Dallas had called the police, and the police told Substance reporter George Schmidt that the call came from someone identifying himself as the “vice president.” Dallas claimed that he had not called the police. Lynch was released from police custody after CTU officials refused to sign the arrest complaint that she had been “disorderly” during the House of Delegates meeting. Others in the photograph above are CTU security coordinator Rick Perrote (behind Dallas), who is now an officer of the Marilyn Stewart faction of the “UPC,” and Ted Hajiharis (a field rep, to the right of Dallas). Two complete stories about the incident (“Scofflaw Union Chiefs Run Outlaw Meeting” by Theresa Daniels and “CTU officials attempt to arrest Deborah Lynch” by George N. Schmidt are still available on the “old” Substance Website at www.substancnews.com. The new Substance site is www.substancenews.net. Substance photo above from the June 1, 2005 CTU meeting by George N. Schmidt.
