Reader Jack Covey explains the injustice of “teacher jail” in Los Angeles.”
“Wow, the article from THE NATION
about teacher jail and Dr. Stevenson
is devastating. It was published in
April 2014, when Dr. Stevenson was
still languishing in teacher jails,
and written by one JoAnn Wypijewski.
“It deals with Deasy’s exploiting the “sex” and “child molestation” angles as a dishonest way to crush innocent veteranteachers—the highest paid naturally—and simultaneously destroy teacher unions’ ability to protect innocent teachers unjustly accused of something
http://www.thenation.com/article/179605/where-shame-policy-inside-las-teacher-jail
“Here’s the opening paragraphs:
————————————————————————-
JoAnn Wypijewski of THE NATION:
“Iris Stevenson hurt no child, seduced no teenager, abused no student at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles. This is what her supporters say in rallying outrage that this exemplary teacher has languished for months in the gulag of administrative detention known as ‘teacher jail’: she doesn’t belong there.
“And she doesn’t.
“Days before being removed from her music classes in December and ordered to spend her workdays isolated on a floor of the LA Unified School District (LAUSD)HQ with other suspect teachers, Stevenson, a legend in South LA and beyond, was at the White House directing the renowned Crenshaw Elite Choir as it sang for President Obama.
“She has not been officially informed of the charges against her. Unofficially, Stevenson is said to have swept off the choir to perform first in Paris and then in Washington without permission—an absurd claim, since parents had to consent, and Stevenson has conducted such foundation-supported field trips untroubled for decades. District authorities say only that Stevenson is under investigation.
“If she were a de facto kidnapper, police should have been called long ago. But, no, this is not about criminality or even misconduct; it is about a larger game of control being played by School Superintendent John Deasy. That game owes quite a lot to sex, because a few years ago a scandal tripped the panic button, which Deasy has kept his finger on ever since, exploiting justified public anger over a classroom pervert to pursue a war on teachers.
“The political question, then, is not just whether Stevenson belongs in teacher jail, but what this institutionalized containment regimen, this sub-bureaucracy of punishment, exists for in the first place, and how the specter of sex is the cowing excuse to go after anyone.”
———————————–
And it goes on from there… Read the whole thing at:
http://www.thenation.com/article/179605/where-shame-policy-inside-las-teacher-jail
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks for the post…
One more thing: years after being returned to the classroom Iris Stevenson, to this day, has still never received any LAUSD documentation in writing, or a verbal communication as to why she was removed from her clasroom. While her students, their parents, and Ms. Stevenson are happy to she’s back teaching, it would be nice if someone from LAUSD actually went on record with the reason for her removal. All she has is rumors that have do with not doing the paperwork for trips properly, or something like that.
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Thanks Jack for all your coverage of teacher jail. Many of us have been reporting on this misuse and abuse of power by both John Deasy, and Ramon Cortines. Both of these Superintendents have banished superb teachers who are widely acclaimed (as with Iris Stevenson and Rafe Esquith), to the ‘rubber rooms’ in teacher jail without any explanation, but with endless, unproven, innuendos of abuse, theft, and other false claims that are NEVER proven, and rarely even charged. These are only rumors which are quickly picked up by the billionaire privatiizers-owned media to show only their biased side of trolling for teachers to disembowel and toss into the trash.
As Lenny Isenberg and most of us have reported, generally these exemplary teachers are over 45 years of age, and they are ‘axed’ by LAUSD just before their benefits of pensions and health care are due to vest. It is clear to any thoughtful and intelligent person that this egregious banishment is to cut costs….but the Beardry managers (with full knowledge and collusion of the LAUSD BoE), and the huge group of middle managers (most of those hired through nepotism and for sexual purposes) continue to get 6 figure salaries, and NO investigation is made by the media, or the public, or the state, into their many misbehaviors.
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It means a lot to see 16 years after they ended my career as a teacher, who was one of the most successful and celebrated in NYC. GO to my author’s page where my resume resides and read my essay Bamboozled, while you are there.
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html That is what happened to me in 1998, so Jack, why do you think this is still happening?
Read about the gotcha squad in NYC which ended the careers of the best teachers so the schools would fail (by NCLB standards).
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
Could it be the media is too busy reporting about ‘incompetent teachers’ and perverts, because there is not a shred of accountability at the top for civil rights abuse for which NO ETHNIC MINORITY WOULD STAND! I WROTE it IN 2004, AND IT WAS PUBLISHED AAIN IN 2011.
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
It took 16 years for teachers, Jack, to finally speak out, but by this time, tens of thousands of teachers have suffered the indignity and humiliations… and the press remain mute.
Lenny Isenberg wrote his years ago, when he blew the whistle on social promotion in LAUSD and they did this
http://www.perdaily.com/2010/02/yesterday-i-was-removed-from-class-in-handcuffs.html
Recently Francesco Portelos, not only went to teacher jail, they harassed him with stint in a real jail,
http://protectportelos.org/does-workplace-bullying-continues-my-33-hrs-behind-bars/but he is fighting back.
His story and the story of hundreds of teachers just like Jack Covey and Esquith and Lederman can be found here:
http://www.endteacherabuse.org/Portelos.html
And Francesco tells about another famous teacher who bit the dust when the nYC gotcha squad took him out. http://protectportelos.org/the-david-pakter-saga-an-all-too-familiar-of-a-story/
Google David Pakter and discover how long ago the civil rights of teachers were up for grabs by lawless administrations who KNEW THE UNION WOULD NOT DEFEND A TEACHER’S SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/search?q=david+pakter
Good luck Jack and everyone in LAUSD. Luck is all you can count on, because the attorney general is looking the other way and the media suffers from intentional blindness.
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/have-reporters-become-poli-ticks–the-media-parasites-of-the-body-politic.html
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For every teacher at the top of the salary scale LAUSD and public school districts like it around the country get rid of on fabricated charges they save approximately $60,000 in salary and benefits when they hire a fresh out of college “teacher” on an emergency credential. They could not get away with this without a corporate dominated media that censors coverage of this and other relevant facts and that is controlled by some of the same folks looking to take as much as 40% of the now near $2 trillion a year public education budget with charter schools through privatization. This is a well executed and coordinated plan that I have covered and documented over the last 5 years at http://www.perdaily.com and CityWatchLA.com (http://www.citywatchla.com/8br-hidden/9448-the-education-illusion-more-charters-will-not-improve-education)
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What’s terrible as well is that UTLA just negotiated a 10% raise, giving the union more than $2 million annually in dues money — yet the leadership still refuses to buy insurance for those in teacher jail. In LAUSD, if you’re hauled off to teacher jail, UTLA has no legal insurance for you, so you submit yourself for review to UTLA’s Legal Services Committee. If they decide your case isn’t worthy of a defense, they’ll tell you you’re on your own and you have to pay your own defense. Many teachers are forced out of the profession because they don’t have the means to fund a costly legal defense. UTLA could buy this insurance today — but refuses to. How many more teachers have to suffer this fate before UTLA will actually start defending its members by buying this insurance? https://www.facebook.com/groups/utlaaccountability/permalink/914462688621520/
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Once you conclude that the leaders of UTLA openly collude with LAUSD the conversation should be over and organized and concerted legal action should commence, unless you think those responsible for the decimation of veteran teachers’ ranks are gonna somehow change without being legally compelled to do so.
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You make a very compelling argument. I do think the UTLA leadership is indifferent to the suffering of those in teacher jail. Were that not true, they’d buy the legal insurance for housed teachers – yet they continue to refuse to do so – now holding this insurance hostage – saying they’ll only get it if we approve a 30% dues increase. They’re not transparent with their budget, and spend tons of money on travel to conferences and contracts for political allies. So the situation is dire. Legal action is definitely a good strategy to try to get UTLA to represent teachers. I also believe we need to publicize their lack of representation, and that if word gets out there, enough pressure could be created so that they have no choice but to start representing teachers.
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Are you aware that UTLA used supposed insurance in the past as an incentive/argument for teachers to join the union and not just be fee payers? What they neglected to tell rank and file is that the insurance company they alleged they had for members had actually gone out of business in 2003. But that didn’t stop them from saying so.
What part of F U don’t you understand??? The Drago’s release time during working hours by Deasy to Caputo-Pearl’s slate in the last election, which got them elected and beholden to LAUSD; The failure to bring one unified action under the existing LAUSD-UTLA Collective Bargaining Agreement, which they clearly have the power to do; and a union that has been owned for the last 43 years by Trygstad, Schwab & Trygstad whose partner’s wife Colleen Schwab sits on the Grievance Review Committee to determine who the union will support financially- but only if they go with Trygstad, Schwab & Trygstad- conflict of interest?; and much much more. LAUSD is run by an entrenched self-servicing bureaucracy and so is UTLA. But to state these obvious and easily verifiable facts makes me anti-union?
Geragos & Geragos just filed a 91 page lawsuit against LAUSD on behalf of falsely targeted teacher Rafe Esquith. Finally, somebody doing something other than just running their mouth. The good news in successfully bring this suit to fruition is that neither LAUSD nor UTLA has made even the slightest attempt to cover their reprehensible and clearly illegal behavior over the last 9 years in going after teachers at the top of the salary scale, about to vest in expensive lifetime health benefits, and/or disabled.
Might some of you out there who have evidence to support the Geragos lawsuit finally reach out to them? Or you can keep talking…
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You make a very compelling argument. I do think the UTLA leadership is indifferent to the suffering of those in teacher jail. Were that not true, they’d buy the legal insurance for housed teachers – yet they continue to refuse to do so – now holding this insurance hostage – saying they’ll only get it if we approve a 30% dues increase. They’re not transparent with their budget, and spend tons of money on travel to conferences and contracts for political allies. So the situation is dire. Legal action is definitely a good strategy to try to get UTLA to represent teachers. I also believe we need to publicize their lack of representation, and that if word gets out there, enough pressure could be created so that they have no choice but to start representing teachers.
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Leonard Eisenberg… unjustly jailed teacher himself and anti-teacher-jail activist seems confident that LAUSD may finally be facing “judgment day” with the Geragos-Esquith lawsuit:
http://www.perdaily.com/2015/08/are-we-finally-getting-closer-to-lausds-judgment-day.html
(Lenny, this be here DREW PEPPER from New Orleans… I cleaned up some of your grammar and sentence construction… some of it was a right mess, if you don’t mind me saying to.)
————————————-
“ARE WE FINALLY GETTING CLOSER TO LAUSD’S JUDGMENT DAY?”
by
Leonard Eisenberg
On Thursday August 13, 2015 the law firm of Geragos & Geragos filed a detailed 91-page Cause of Action on behalf of nationally acclaimed Hobart Elementary school teacher Rafe Esquith against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Esquith Complaint (Conformed).pdf
Click to access Complaint-Conformed.pdf
More specifically—and in addition to suing LAUSD as a legal entity—the lawsuit also names as individual defendants Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines, Chief Legal Officer David R. Holmquist, and 50 “John Doe’s” to be subsequently named after they are identified through the discovery process—a process now open to the plaintiffs to finally compel LAUSD administrators and others to testify under oath and tell the truth, or face serious and costly—-both financial and personal—legal consequences for failing to do so.
In filing this lawsuit, the Geragos firm is in for a pleasant surprise, since it will soon find as the case unfolds, that LAUSD and its corrupt and long-bullying administration have literally made no attempt to cover up any of their reprehensible behavior toward Esquith, or. for that matter, toward any of its other unjustly targeted employees. Indeed, literally nobody in LAUSD administration has every possessed any “good faith” belief that the vast majority of teachers whom they have targeted have actually done anything wrong.
Rather, to quote Marlon Brando’s Vito Coreleone in THE GODFATHER, what will become perfectly clear is that in LAUSD’s treatment of its teachers, “It’s just business.”
As the trial progresses, LAUSD’s usual stall tactics—the ones that have served them so well against defenseless teachers abandoned by their union, United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)—will fail miserably against a Geragos law firm with the bank and legal brilliance to go against LAUSD (and its law firm, Sedgwick… DREW)toe-to-toe for the long run. (Geragos successfully defended Michael Jackson, you might recall… DREW)
At this point, it will become abundantly clear—in this first neutral forum to dispassionately exam LAUSD’s claims against its senior teaching staff—that the charges in the vast majority of cases are completely fabricated, and based exclusively on the totally illegal motive of targeting teachers who are:
1) at the top of the salary scale;
2) and/or about to vest in expensive lifetime health benefits;
3) and/or disabled;
4) and/or teachers like Esquith who stood up against ill-conceived and often downright illegal programs adopted and implemented by LAUSD.
Simply stated, LAUSD’s witch hunt has been about money, and has had nothing to do with “child safety,” as claimed by both Superintendent Cortines, and by his predecessor, the now-Broad-Foundation-employee John Deasy. In this light, I cannot help but wondering if John Deasy might also be one of the to-be-named “John Doe’s 1-50” in this lawsuit.
Furthermore, as more evidence is gathered in the Esquith case, a class action suit against LAUSD is likely to be filed, or at the very least, many more lawsuits against LAUSD like Esquith’s will be filed, since a pattern and practice of LAUSD’s illegal behavior will clearly emerge.
What it will show is that literally thousands of other certificated or classified staff were either forced into early retirement, or brought up on knowingly false charges by bullying LAUSD administrators and their coerced subordinates.
The point at which this case is likely to break wide open is when some of the coerced administrators or investigators (“Virgil County”?… depose him first … DREW) finally speak up to save themselves, coming clean about how they knowingly—and with malice aforethought, at the behest of, or under threat from their superiors—then went after and destroyed the careers of completely innocent teachers. Some candidates from whom Geragos’ firm might choose to take depositions are those presently being fired by Superintendent Cortines.
In the pleading filed by Geragos & Geragos on behalf of Rafe Esquith, there are allegations and descriptions of clearly illegal activity on the part of LAUSD, ignoble transgressions which literally thousands of targeted teachers can definitively substantiate, and which LAUSD has literally no evidence to counter.
In fact, the evidence clearly and convincingly substantiates what the Esquith lawsuit states:
1. No exculpatory evidence of teacher innocence or good behavior was allowed to remain in the teacher’s file, as part of a one-sided process which was only designed to ultimately get rid of the teacher;
2. Teachers were systematically submitted to “psychological torture” in long-term “teacher jail” incarceration, a heinous practice that not only had no reason to exist in a purposefully protracted “investigation process,” but which was ultimately dispensed with even before LAUSD decided to resurrect it against Rafe Esquith;
3. In complete derogation of the legal standard which had been put in place in response to the tragic McMartin Preschool case in the 1980’s—where all the McMartin teachers and administrators were ultimately found to be completely innocent of any wrongdoing—and, as a result, clear rules were firmly established as to the following:
a) exactly what permission was needed to be obtained from parents prior to that parent(s)’ child being questioned (again… depose “Virgil County” and Jose Cantu first on this one…. DREW);
b) who was qualified to question impressionable students (again… depose “Virgil County” and Jose Cantu first on this one…. DREW); and
c) the neutrality of the questions being asked, so as to prevent the interviewer from leading a highly impressionable youth’s responses to a preconceived result (again… depose “Virgil County” and Jose Cantu first on this one…. DREW).
In the Esquith case, and in literally thousands like it, LAUSD administrators purposefully chose to ignore these legal standards…
— in their interrogation of students without parents’ permission;
— where leading and presuppositional questions were asked of children, manipulative questions that suggested and led to the predetermined answers sought by people asking them—in this case principals or other LAUSD personnel;
and
— where those people interviewing those children were completely unqualified to question the students, and, as a result, they improperly and illegally manipulated them to provide false testimony.
4. And in typical bully behavior, any attempt by Esquith or other targeted teachers to defend themselves against clearly fabricated and disproven charges was met with LAUSD next tactic—its long-established and verifiable practice of simply piling on more and more serious charges that inexplicably were never brought until the teacher tried to defend themselves.
But there might just be a silver lining to the regrettable situation in which LAUSD now finds itself.
When one looks at the likely astronomical damages in the billions that LAUSD faces from the Esquith case and from the thousands likely to follow, maybe LAUSD can take a page from the City of Detroit bankruptcy in making lemonade out of its lemons.
If LAUSD is ultimately forced into bankruptcy, they might just get out of ALL their contractual liability for wages, benefits, and retirement programs, which, after all, seems to have been the reason they started the witch hunt against senior certificated and classified employees in the first place back in 2006.
If you or someone you know has been targeted, and are in the process of being dismissed, and need legal defense, get in touch:
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