Teacher Hit By Snowball, Then Beaten; Two Arrested

Two men were arrested yesterday for investigation of assaulting a Garfield High School teacher after he confronted one about breaking his glasses with a snowball.

The teacher suffered cuts and swelling on his face and forehead and was treated at a hospital for dizziness and confusion, said Christie-Lynn Bonner, Seattle Police Department spokeswoman. He was identified by Seattle School District spokeswoman Dorothy Dubia as Ralph Minor.

Minor, 41, told police that moments after he got off a bus at 23rd Avenue and East Jefferson Street he noticed the men, wearing black bandanas over their faces, were throwing snowballs.

As he walked alongside the Medgar Evers Swimming Pool toward the high school at about 8:30 a.m., a snowball apparently thrown by one of the men struck him in the face, breaking his glasses.

One of the men fled and Minor said he then walked to the other and asked for the name of the man who had fled. When the man didn't answer, Minor pulled down the bandana and the man said, "Don't mess with me," according to the police report.

Minor said the man then punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Witnesses told officers the second man then returned and that the two men punched Minor repeatedly as he attempted to regain his feet.

Witnesses said the men ran away when they realized witnesses in the school had called the police. Minor was off work the rest of the day after getting stitches to close several cuts in his mouth, Dubia said.

A short time later, officers found two men walking along the east side of the school who fit the descriptions provided by Minor and the witnesses, Bonner said.

One of the men wore a black bandana around his neck, and the other had one in his pocket, Bonner said.

The men have not been Garfield students, Dubia said.

Contacted at his home last night, Minor declined to discuss the attack. But his wife said he at first had believed the two men were students and wanted them to be held accountable for their behavior.

"He is very proud of Garfield and its students and doesn't want anything to reflect badly on the school," she said. "He wanted them to be responsible."