State drops charges against North Pole parent who tried to get his child out of locked-down school

They tried every way they could to damage the reputation of parent and political activist Keiths Fons of North Pole. The police tried him in the court of Facebook and in the mainstream news.

But earlier this month, the State of Alaska prosecutors dropped the Assault 4 case against Fons altogether.

It was back in September when North Pole High School was locked down, but parents waiting outside were not told the nature of the lockdown, or why students were being held for nearly 20 minutes after the bell had rung at the end of the school day. Later it was disclosed that there was an incident on one of the athletic fields, where a student allegedly was threatening a teacher.

Fons wasn’t accepting that lack of communication. He went inside with his camera rolling to find out why students were herded into the entryway, but not released to their parents, who were in the parking area. As far as he was concerned, his daughter was being held hostage.

Things got testy, and later that day a worker, Alysia S. Johnson, filed assault charges, saying she felt unsafe by Fons, who was insisting on information. Fons posted the $500 bail and hired an attorney to fight the charge.

Fons and his attorney demanded that the official body camera footage be released. The police refused. Fons and his attorney would not accept a plea deal and were willing to go to trial. Meanwhile, the employee who brought the charges has left the school.

The charge that was dropped was a misdemeanor — Assault 4-Cause Fear Of Injury. But prior to his arrest, Fons had active on Facebook, where he was revealing some information about one of the members of the school board. Fons raised the concern that his arrest was retaliatory in nature.

Fons has been cited by the North Pole police in the past for the offense of having Christmas lights strung all over his vehicle. That’s about the extent of his rap sheet, however.