Police respond to altercation at WASI, trespass resident

WASILLA – The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska is investigating a freedom of speech issue at the Wasilla Senior Center after a resident was banished from the dining hall Monday for a week when she refused to take a political campaign sign off the back of her wheelchair.

Wasilla Police were called to the center near the Knik-Palmer Wasilla Highway intersection for the second time in so many months after Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. Executive Director Sondra Kaplan got into a scuffle with WASI member Noel Halvorson over Halvorson’s “Woodruff for Mayor” sign on the back of her motorized chair.

Wasilla Councilwoman Dianne Woodruff is running for Wasilla mayor against incumbent Verne Rupright, fellow councilwoman Taffina Katkus, Levi Johnston, and former Councilman Michael Carson in this year’s October election.

Woodruff has been an ongoing fixture at WASI Board of Directors meetings and a vocal opponent of Kaplan and some on the WASI board in the past several months.

Although Halvorson and other seniors who’ve been fighting for transparency at WASI have their suspicions that Kaplan wouldn’t have made such an issue out of the campaign sign if it had anyone else’s name on it, they hope the focus of the issue is not the candidate, but the idea of being prohibited from having such a sign at the center.

“This has nothing to do with Dianne Woodruff and everything to do with freedom of speech and expression,” said Halvorson, a resident in one of the assisted living facilities there for the past six years. “I wasn’t doing any sort of active campaigning or trying to get anyone to vote a certain way. Yet Sondra came up to me and told me I had to either take the sign off or leave. I told her I wasn’t going to take it off and I wasn’t going to leave until I was done with my lunch.”

Halvorson said Kaplan had given her a copy of the 2002 WASI policy against political material being pushed at members about a week ago as a warning, but she said she read the policy, but said she doesn’t think it prohibits her from hanging a sign on her wheelchair.

Although WASI policy does permit candidates for office to speak to members when invited to do so by the board, no one is permitted to pass out campaign materials or literature unless a senior specifically requests the material and no one can leave any sort of campaign literature at the front desk or on bulletin boards or the like.

However, Woodruff, Halvorson and outspoken senior Lois Wier said they don’t feel Halvorson’s sign endorsing Woodruff falls into those categories.

So when Kaplan walked up to Halvorson Monday as she was eating lunch, handed her another copy of the policy and told her to remove the sign or leave, Halvorson wasn’t going to comply so easily.

“When I refused to take off the sign, Sondra reached for it and I told her, ‘Please do not touch my chair or me.’ She then went back to her office and got her assistant and started up again, telling me to either take the sign off or leave,” Halvorson recalled. “She reached for it again and gave it to the other woman and then I grabbed it back from her and put it by my chair.”

When Kaplan refused to allow her to finish her lunch in peace, Halvorson spun her chair around and their hands made contact, causing Wier to ask her if she wanted her to call the police. When Halvorson told her she did, Officer Jentry Crain appeared on the scene once again, shaking his head, according to Halvorson.

Crain had been there before, just a few months prior when Wier called police during a similar scuffle involving Kaplan and Frontiersman Editor Heather Resz before a WASI board meeting. The issue then was whether Resz had the right to take pictures during a public meeting and it escalated into a possible minor assault when Kaplan tried to block the camera and ended up hitting Resz in the face with a folder.

This time, it was mostly verbal.

“He wanted to talk to me in private, but I wanted everyone to hear and see what was going on because it wasn’t right,” Halvorson said.

When all was said and done, Crain informed Halvorson she was considered a trespasser and would not be able to dine at the center for a week.

Wier and WASI member Anne Kilkenny contacted the ACLU in Anchorage, asking for some help for Halvorson. They reportedly agreed to look into it.

Kaplan released a statement to the Frontiersman Monday afternoon arguing that Halvorson was in violation of WASI policy.

“There is a 2002 policy posted on the front door of WASI, as well as throughout the building,” Kaplan wrote. “Recently, there has been more violations of this policy. Each member who violated the policy was discreetly provided a copy of the policy — and they were given the opportunity to respond and ask questions. Each person agreed to cooperative for the good of all members — as the policy was intended. Today, a member who recently agreed to this policy, violated the policy once again. This member was asked to remove the sign, and refused. When the member was told she must abide by the policy or leave, she began to escalate the situation. Because our goal here at WASI is to provide a peaceful, happy environment, we had not choice but to call the police for a peaceful resolution.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.