This day in history: Teachers in Spokane expected to strike; squash thief admits to string of car thefts, other crimes

From 1975: Chances were “very good” that Spokane teachers would go on strike for the first time in the district’s history.

The president of the Spokane Education Association said he had discussed the issue with nearly half of the district’s teachers and “more than 90 percent” said they favored calling for a strike.

Spokane school administrators were clearly nervous.

“We’ll just have to wait and see,” a district spokesman said.

The district was preparing for a strike by lining up more than 500 substitutes, with a goal of having 800 available on the day school was scheduled to open.

The spokesman for the teacher’s union said the district had “done nothing to get these negotiations out of deadlock.”

The strike vote was scheduled for that evening. If the Spokane teachers voted to strike, they would have plenty of company. Many districts around the state – and around the country – were bracing for strikes.

From 1925: The theft of a “prized squash” in the Spokane Valley two days earlier led to a surprising result.

An 18-year-old, who was arrested for the gourd-stealing escapade, was also believed to be the ringleader of an “alleged crook gang of boys and young men,” responsible for a string of car thefts and armed holdups.

Several others were rounded up by city and county officers.

Police said he admitted to the theft of at least eight cars and to two holdups in Coeur d’Alene. Five other members of the alleged gang were arrested in Wenatchee on a stolen car charge. They were being brought back to Spokane to face charges.

Police were confident they could also charge some members of the gang with holding up a Spokane streetcar conductor. They were also suspected of holding up a man under the Northern Pacific viaduct amid a hail of gunfire.