In the ongoing investigation of Rafe Esquith, the Los Angeles Unified School District brought new allegations against him.
Famed teacher Rafe Esquith sued the Los Angeles school district Thursday as officials released new abuse allegations against the fifth-grade instructor.
Esquith, who earned renown for introducing his Hobart Boulevard Elementary students to Shakespeare, alleged that the district mishandled an investigation into misconduct charges against him.
The veteran teacher was removed from his classroom in April. The probe began when a colleague expressed concern about a joke Esquith made to his students. Since then, the investigation has expanded to include a review of Esquith’s theatrical nonprofit and allegations that he abused a boy more than 40 years ago.
Esquith, 61, has denied wrongdoing.
L.A. Unified disclosed Thursday that its inquiry now involves the inappropriate touching of minors both before and during Esquith’s teaching career and that multiple photos of a sexual nature were found on his school computer.
In correspondence to Esquith’s attorneys, released by the district, officials said that the investigation “has revealed serious allegations of highly inappropriate conduct involving touching of minors before and during Mr. Esquith’s time at the School District.”
The letter also claims the investigation “revealed multiple inappropriate photographs and emails of a sexual nature” on his school computer as well as email correspondence with students that was “inconsistent” with the district’s code of conduct. The letter also referred to allegations of “threats to a parent and two students.”
In addition, the district said there were “possible ethical and District policy violations” related to Esquith’s nonprofit, the Hobart Shakespeareans.
One of Esquith’s attorneys, Mark Geragos, called the allegations outrageous.
“I would have thought rational minds would have come to their senses, but they are so frustrated by the fact that every one of their allegations, and the things they want to gin up, came up as a dry hole,” Geragos said.
The attorney added that he had seen the letter with detailed allegations only because a reporter had forwarded it to him. He said that as of Thursday afternoon, he had not yet received the letter from L.A. Unified.
Esquith’s suit seeks his return to school as well as damages for alleged defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, retaliation and age discrimination. According to the litigation, stress from the investigation led to Esquith’s recent hospitalization for thrombosis.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If (and it’s a big if) these new charges are true, then LAUSD itself is guilty of letting it happen, since the complaint was filed over ten years ago.
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Someone below posted an EXCELLENT question — why isn’t this a POLICE investigation if there is a charge that this teacher did something wrong?
virginiasgp and others are oddly not shouting for this. Didn’t the Penn State football coach affair teach us anything about not turning over evidence to a police. It’s surprising that all the pro-privatizers and anti-public school teacher posters on here haven’t been yelling for a proper police investigation. Why?
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There is a new article where the police are now involved.
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Hey, KnowthefactsFirst:
Believe it or not, I—and perhaps others—are open to being persuaded by you.
Given that, could you answer some questions and give some clarity here?
(I’d really like some answers here, so when I teach civics to my students, I can tell them whether or not you and I and they are still living in a Constitutional democracy with the freedoms that go along with that. I’m not really sure anymore.)
——————————
— Can a third party law firm hired by a school district effectively blackmail—under threat of indefinite suspension or termination—one of its employees into giving up his Constitutional rights to privacy—especially, as in this case here, the school district refuses to disclose the foundations or suspicions for requesting this private information?
If the answer to that question is “YES”, then that can only mean one thing:
— that NO ONE who is employed by ANYONE ANYWHERE has ANY true and effective Constitutional rights to privacy… that is, if the employer—outside the context of a civil lawsuit or deposition process—can simply extort that employee into giving up all those Constitutional rights to privacy, using a threat of indefinite suspension or termination to compel such cooperation whenever the employer feel like doing so.
Am I missing something?
Is there a lawyer — or anyone reading this, for that matter — in the house who can provide clarity here?
Because, frankly, I’m stumped.
Here are those questions in context:
———–
Also, prior to Geragos filing a lawsuit, there was… well… there was no civil lawsuit, so I don’t get exactly why and how Sedgwick, as LAUSD’S legal representative, can demand or even ask Rafe or the non-profit for any such documents. It’s one thing if there’s a lawsuit, and Sedgwick subpoenas this evidence as part of discovery… but there isn’t.
Also, in the event of an actual prosecution by the Federal, County, State, or City prosecutors, those prosecutors possess the power to get a judge to issue subpoenas for such documents. However, even in that case, IT’S NOT SEDGWICK’S JOB DO TO SO. They’re not prosecutors in this or any other case.
As yet, there is no such prosecution of Rafe, the non-profit, or anyone else.
As someone else said, there’s an implied promise / threat in the communication from Sedgwick to Rafe and the non-profit—a carrot and stick, if you will. Sedgwick promises that if one of both of those parties voluntarily turns over this documentation, this will “expedite” the process, and the process will, as a result, come to an earlier completion. The other side of that sword is that there is a threat that, if you don’t voluntarily cooperate, then who knows how long this will drag on for?
And who knows if we don’t just fire you for not cooperating with an investigation. There are teachers who’ve been in LAUSD’s teacher jail for years… with no end to their incarceration in sight.
Considering all of this, how voluntary is the request that Sedgwick is making?
Can a third party law firm hired by a school district effectively blackmail—under threat of indefinite suspension or termination—one of its employees into giving up his constitutional rights to privacy—especially, as in this case here, the school district refuses to disclose the foundations or suspicions for requesting this private information?
If that’s the case, then NO ONE who is employed by ANYONE ANYWHERE has ANY true and effective constitutional rights to privacy… that is, if the employer—outside the context of a civil lawsuit or deposition process—can simply extort that employee into giving up all those constitutional rights to privacy, using a threat of indefinite suspension or termination to compel such cooperation whenever the employer feel like doing so.
Am I missing something?
Is there a lawyer in the house who can provide clarity here?
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I just read the 91 pages of the lawsuit papers & exhibits
filed by Rafe’s lawyers, and it’s pretty mind-blowing
on a lot of levels.
Click to access Complaint-Conformed.pdf
SOME HIGHLIGHTS:
— as a result of the 2-adults-on-1 grilling that
his students endured at the hands of LAUD
investigators, may of them have been under
psychiatric care, and one even attempted sucide;
— as I surmised, the real orchestrator of this has
been LAUSD’s top counsel David Holmquist;
Geragos was able to ascertain that Holmquist
personally called the elderly 80-something mother of
the alleged victim (from the early 1970’s incident
at the Jewish day camp), and pressured her to
have her son call L.A. Times reporter Zahira
Torres, providing the contact info for Torres,
and asking him to make the call on the day
after Rafe’s initial lawsuit filing; this was
timed to distract from the attention that would
have gone to LAUSD’s misconduct in the case;
— Rafe is a total mess right now; the descriptions
of his current state are harrowing — “hospitalized
for three days with stress-induced coronoary
thrombosis”… once he returned home,
per doctor’s orders, Rafe must not leave his
bed; he’s under daily medical supervision,
and his health remains extremely fragile;
he’s also suffering multiple “stress-related disorders”—
“pain, anxiety, depression, emotional distress from
public ridicule… panic, grief, terror, nervousness,
dread, stress, depression, and loss of sleep;”
“hospitalizing him for three days, placing him
perilous health for weeks;”
— given all of the above, Geragos reiterated
his request that LAUSD contact Geragos first
and instead of directly contacting Rafe… and
LAUSD has continued to refuse to extend
that courtesy;
two weeks ago, they contacted Rafe, directly requesting
that he submit to a second round of interrogation
on August 5, 2015… and Geragos claimed LAUSD’s doing so
exacerbated Rafe’s health problems; Rafe’s doctor now says
that his health is so precarious that the doctor insists that Rafe not
even leave his house;
In response to LAUSD’s letter requesting
15 years of Rafe’s tax returns, monthly bank
statements, loan documents, etc. … Geragos
blasted LAUSD: “We reject every aspect of your letter.
It is not clear … what authority you have.
“Your letter states that ‘we are mindful that
each of us is eager to reach a conclusion to
this matter.’ Mr. Esquith, along with hundreds
of LAUSD teachers who have contacted our firm,
takes your statement for what it’s worth—utter
nonsense.
“Without any legal authority or justification,
your letter makes unrestricted and boundless
demands on Mr. Esquith and from the Hobart
Shakespeareans. It is evident that LAUSD is
not satisfied with attempting to destroy its
top educator, LAUSD has moved beyond is
intent on destroying a non-profit which is responsible for
training the next generation of business leaders
from underprivileged and underfunded minority
communities.
“It is evident that LAUSD cannot help itself,
and is intent on self-destruction.”
Geragos references a separate lawsuit filed
against the investigators for defamation
and improper conduct for a government
agency. “Please accept this letter as an
amendment to our Government Code Section
910 claim in which we are adding all members
of LAUSD’s General Counsel’s Office (i.e.
Holmquist and his staff) and its media affairs
office as putative defendants for its defamatory
conduct.”
“LAUSD has been discredited at ever turn of its
smear campaign. Hundreds of teachers have united
and all share the same exact story of retaliation and
retribution…
“LAUSD and Cortines should be ashamed of its conduct.”
There’s more about the investigation into Rafe’s
dealings with the non-profit Hobart Shakespeareans.
LAUSD attorneys demanded universal access into
all the non-profit’s records of its finances and
operations for the last fifteen years.
The non-profit asked what foundation, and upon
what authority they are doing this.
LAUSD responded that they possessed but
would not reveal “the information (that LAUSD
has) developed to date” indicating that Rafe was in
violation of “government ethics laws in his actions
with the Hobart Shakespeareans.” They’re only
interested in going after Rafe, and not
anyone else with the non-profit, so cough
it up.
LAUSD did not answer their question…
upon what authority can you make such
a request—as they’re not part of law
enforcement?
LAUSD then threatens that if the non-profit
does not comply, LAUSD will then resort
to “more formal means” of compelling them.
They said the same thing to Rafe regarding
their request for the last 15 years of his
tax returns, monthly bank statements,
and documentation relating to any home
or car loans. If Rafe doesn’t comply, they
will then resort to “more formal means’
to compel him.
The non-profit’s lawyers respond by asking yet again,
exactly what legal authority LAUSD investigators does have to
pursue these “more formal means”?
To date, LAUSD has not responded.
The final EXHIBIT is the letter from Geragos says that
there’s no point in discussing this further,
that a lawsuit is coming.
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OMG, and THANKS! My hear aches. How horrid.
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The lausd has climbed all the way to the top of the abyss from where it is pushing veteran teachers like Mr. Equith because the charter schools need space. They want the teachers at the top of the salary dead because they save a lot of money. They don’t care to violate our due process of law and our civil rights guaranteed in the United States Constitution.
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FYI…According to LinkedIn, David Holmquist, the General Counsel for LAUSD went to Western State University College of Law, from 1991- 1995 (not a major accredited law school). He first went to Oregon State University where he got a BS in Business Administration. His work specialty is listed on LinkedIn as Risk Management.
It is worth reading the KPCC report of his connection to the Ramon Cortines Sex lawsuits and his persecution, not prosecution, of Scott Graham, Cortines’ young lover (under duress it would seem) who was a district employee, and who has now pressed 3 suits of harassment, and now also retaliatory firing, against the district (with the naming of the chief perp being Cortines). Holmquist, ever the Risk Manager, sees to it that public continues to pay for the Superintendents sex life misadventures.
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It’s detestable that before notifying Esquith’s counsel, LAUSD goes to the media as part of an ongoing effort to poison the atmosphere and try Esquith in the media by destroying his rep. I’m glad for the defamation suit, cuz he has no other recourse. This sort of lawyering mirrors a lot of techniques associated w/now gone Deasey and the long term strategy of demonizing teachers as a whole in LAUSD. An administrative scorched earth strategy that leaves the district in shambles but plenty of posturing as tuff guys for the suits. Just a horrific setting now.
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LAUSD is famous for leaking info to the media. They did it, with the BoE’s knowledge and collusion, in Ocy. 2013 when Deasy threatened to resign just days before his 2nd term contract was to be renewed, after the story broke about his 91% NO CONFIDENCE vote by the District teachers, and the failures of the iPads, etc.
It was leaked by Beaudry acccording to Times sources, and the LA Times headlines were huge, DEASY QUITS was the theme. You could hear the cheering all over town. But 12 hours later, he changed his mind and they had to print a follow up apologia. Meanwhile it gave the Broad gang (United Way and Parent Revolution) the time to manipulate the inner city folks, and hire many buses to bus them to the BoE meeting where they were paid actors in their street performance and party on Oct. 29, 2013 for the benefit of the media. It was a disgusting sham and has been reported here many times.
LAUSD, Monica Garcia, and others, use these phony methods with impunity. I would like to know why Zimmer and the others went along with that one…and others like the chairs set up all over the heavily trafficed street at Beaudry. It is SO disrespectful of the taxpayers that they think they are fooling the public…and that this is in any way a display of ‘civil rights’ as Deasy would say.
These LAUSD administrators have LIED and MANIPULATED for so long that they seem to have lost all sense of morality and dignity.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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What kind of “example” is being set by LAUSD as LA students are watching this attack unfold! There should be jail time for those perpetrating this witch hunt. That would be “true accountability”!
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This is seriously creepy,
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Wow.
Teach a long time and then a colleague expresses concern about a joke YOU made to your students. and then, the investigation expands to include a review of your personal finances and allegations that you abused a child more than 40 years ago.
What did this guy REALLY do to warrant all this? And who is this “colleague”?
Teaching in LAUSD (and maybe elsewhere) has entered a “dark age.”
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If you read the lawsuit, Geragos claims that LAUSD’s motive was that Rafe was constantly critical of LAUSD, that he voiced those criticisms to the media… of many things the district has done… adopting Common Core curriculum and testing, spending boondoggles like the I-pad imbroglio, the misuse and over-emphasis on standardized testing.
The other motive the lawsuit alleges was that Rafe is at the high end of the salary scale, and those folks all have targets on their backs.
Another thing is the message it sends to any other teacher in Rafe’s situation… the ones who, unlike Rafe, can’t afford the same law firm and attorney that helped Michael Jackson get acquitted. If they can do it to world-renown teacher like Rafe and win, what chance does a typical teacher have?
Another aspect of this was also mentioned in the lawsuit. Rafe’s kids have some of the highest test scores in the district, and in the school.
The accusation made its was to the principal and his higher ups a month before they moved on Rafe. LAUSD waited until after his class had taken the new Common Core tests, and THEN a day later, They were the first class who demonstrated how to take this new on-line test went after him. Geragos claimed that “used” Rage and his students when they were conventient, then after they were no longer useful, went after Rafe.
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I would imagine, backed by Broad’s bank account, LAUSD’s defense pockets are deep and it/they will stop at nothing. When, oh, when, will our justice system put an end to Eli Broad and his “academy” of thieves?
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Also, stuff can be added to a computer …. and forensic computer experts can find out if it was. If LAUSD has tampered with Esquith’s computer, all hell should break loose.
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That is my case!!
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Somehow the teacher who touched all this off with the original complaint should be sued as well. Or publicly outed.
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NO!
As a mandatory reporter, the teacher should have all the protections that Mr. Esquith should have had as an “innocent until proven guilty” American citizen.
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She was not reporting potential abuse. She was offended by the reference to a quote. Not the same.
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This female teacher who has been named in various reports, was actually a colleague of Rafe’s (and she wrote him a note of apology for starting this witch hunt for she said she did not understand that he was quoiting Mark Twain…all in print online) who was observing in his class…and being not too bright, took umbrage at the Mark Twain quote using the word ‘nude’…she reported him to their principal who knew and respected Rafe for decades. He did not want to report this silly incident, but was under a duty to report. Once the creeps at Beaudry had this, they were off and running to smear him and get rid of him.
As a world known expert in public education, Rafe had observers from all over the world in his classroom every day. How could he do anything suspect with so many adults always observing him and his students? The Shakespeare group was similar with parents and older students, and the public, always observing. These charges are preposterous.
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Too bad UTLA won’t actually do anything to hold LAUSD accountable — no efforts to expose district waste, why would they when UTLA keeps its own budget SECRET from its own members — and NO efforts to get legal insurance for housed teachers, the same insurance very other local in California provides for its members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/utlaaccountability/
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This almost as big a bummer as that ISIS sex slavery stuff… almost.
I just found a news piece:
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/08/13/attorney-mark-geragos-calls-allegations-against-popular-teacher-smear-campaign-by-lausd/
On camera, Mark Geragos fires back, calling LAUSD
“a criminal conspiracy that needs to be put out of
business, and we’re going to put it out of business.”
The L.A. Times claims that LAUSD leaked
LAUSD’s latest letter with the newest accusations to a reporter,
with neither Rafe nor Rafe’s lawyer receiving a copy.
To use the latest slang, leaking this to me media
is a “messed up” thing to do. It smacks
of a total hostility and viciousness
on LAUSD’s part. Veteran , high-paid
LAUSD employees—especially if they make trouble—
are lower than dirt, and thus, all evil is allowed when
crushing one of them. It’s contemptible.
As for the allegations themselves… well…
I don’t know what to think, exactly. Some of the
allegations seem maddeningly vague… “inappropriate
touching” … violations of “code of conduct.”..
a “threatening email” to a parent.
Rafe has extremely high standards for
his class, and his Shakespeare program.
I can easily see him sending an email to a child or parent
saying, “If you don’t … , you will not be allowed to
participate… or go on a field trip… or whatever.”
Does that qualify as “threatening?”
As for stuff on the “his” computers… well, to paraphrase
Bill Clinton, “It depends of what the definition of
‘his’ is.” By that, I mean… I’ve seen Rafe’s class.
There were DOZENS OF personal computers all
over that room—laptops, I-macs, etc.,—with each
student having their own laptop.
Computers in any teacher’s classroom are constantly being
misused by students… with the kids accessing porn
sites… even the teacher’s computer when the
teacher isn’t looking.
From a teacher’s standpoint, this is a nightmare-ish
perhaps no-win scemario. If the teacher discovers it, the child will
beg the teacher not to go to the principal or his parents…
“My dad will use the belt on me… ” was one response.
Now, my advice to teachers is GO TO THE PRINCIPAL
AND THE PARENTS, because if you don’t, and it’s
discovered later that porn was accessed on that
computer, you will be accused. They will presume that
you did it.
This, in turn, invites the child to pin it on the teacher…
in order to save his own neck…
Mind you, THAT’S IF YOU CATCH THE CHILD
ACCESSING PORN. If the child—or, in one actual
case the college student teacher aide—accesses this,
never tells anyone, then closes the window with no one
the wiser. The digital proof of porn being
accessed is permanently on that computer. Some day,
if that teacher gets in trouble for something else,
the LAUSD investigators will then search the computer
and the teacher will be fired for being an internet
porn addict.
However, even in the absolute best case scenario
with Rafe being ultimately proven innocent, this will
take YEARS to play out in his favor.
He’s 61 years old. According to his lawsuit, the stress
of this whole affair has caused Rafe to hospitalized
with coronary thrombosis. The loss of his life
as a teacher will devastate him further, perhaps
leading to his early demise, God forbid.
Thus, he may never get back in the classroom, or
by the time this plays out in his favor, he may never
be able to return to his classroom.
LAUSD has pushed all their chips forward
on the table here. From their point of view,
they MUST win… or hundreds who’ve joined
Rafe’s lawsuit as part of a class action will also
prevail… we’re talking hundreds of millions of
dollars in possible settlements or judgments
against LAUSD, if Rafe prevails.
This will take years to play out.
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As outré as all this sounds, those of us who have spent some years in public education know only too well how these witch hunts start and why and how they progress. Like cockroaches, these people flee from the light and this blog is part of the illumination.
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The statute of limitations on most of these crimes is long past – it would be almost impossible to legally prove he did anything. How do you fight a 40 year old informal charge with a child that is now past middle age?
A 10 year old charge?
How much clearer can it be that LAUSD is grasping at straws. Even if images that were improper were accessed on his computer it would be very difficult to tie him to being at the keyboard when the images were accessed – even if he had a personal log in (ppl forget to log out sometimes)
LA must know all this yet is choosing a war against a universally loved teacher that they have a reason to hate and grasping at some pretty flimsy straws to do so.
Chasing a person directly in poor health when his lawyer is available is just cruel.
Is there such a thing as prosecutorial misconduct or malicious prosecution in LA?
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It is called ‘abuse of process’ and it is part of the criminal code.
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I’d rather see the individuals responsible for this travesty pay for their CRIMES against Mr. Esquith and the rest of us LA teachers than see the district bankrupted so that online charters can step in and fail. If that happens, Broad really wins. There is no justice. What a mess!
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Unfortunately, Left Coast friend, Broad and his hatchet men and women, and his billionaire pals, would prefer to see the district go bankrupt so they can swoop in and buy up all the property for a pittance. Then they would have it all, ready to make it a West Coast New Orleans…all charters. Green Dot hucksters are drooling at the prospect.
Even should ithe district go into Chapter 11 reorganization, the Broadies would have the edge in reorganizing. See how this was done recently on a small scale with them Gulen Magnolia Charters when the CCSA woman took over their economically doomed schools, and also it will be interesting to see how Ref Rodriguez influences his BoE colleagues to reconstitute his failing PUC charters. Wonder if he will ever pay back the district what he owes? His repeated failures to pay his LAUSD bills is all stipulated in the audits from last Nov.
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“his school computer”…this is shaky at best. My school computer was second hand from offices at the board, custodial staff. Administration and who knows who else had access each evening as I often found my computer had been messed with when I came to work each morning. Students may even have gotten in if the room were unlocked. LAUSD had better have something better than this.
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I can’t believe folks are shocked by ISIS and then completely ignore potential serious allegations against this teacher. Are you telling me you would put your kid in his class or send your kid on overnight trips with him? Are you kidding me?
Let’s even assume that there is a 90% chance that nothing inappropriate has occurred. Are you suggesting that a 10% chance of misconduct should be ignored? That’s what the priests did for years. In fact, seems the teacher would have rather taught in a catholic school.
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Well, Virginia, you can look at someone’s track record, character, the testimony of countless students and parents, or you can swallow a bunch of very conveniently-produced factoids that as of yet have zero substance. I have a friend here in Ann Arbor whose teaching career was ended due to a false accusation of misconduct. It took a couple of years to sort out in the courts, but the key witness – the best friend of the accuser – completely destroyed the accusations and ultimately the case was dismissed with no finding of ANY wrong-doing on the part of the teacher. Unfortunately, he, too, was towards the end of his career, and it was impossible for him to resume teaching in this district or to get a job elsewhere, so he bowed to the inevitable and retired. He had NEVER previously been accused of anything even vaguely untoward, and with good reason.
As for your 90-10 hypothetical. I’m not suggesting anything about a 10% chance of misconduct because you pulled that figure out of thin air. If he’s in fact innocent, there’s ZERO chance of misconduct. If he’s guilty, then there’s 100% chance. But without any real basis, you invent a 1 in 10 scenario and ask what people would do. I think I’d ask where you got your numbers and upon what basis? And I’d judge based on all the other factors. With molesting priests, it’s never an isolated incident nor one accuser. There’s a history of being moved from parish to parish. You see that here? If not, I’d hold my wagging tongue for the moment. Sadly, you seem to have some trouble in that regard.
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Michael Paul Goldenberg, I would disagree on the 100-0. You see, we can never know for sure. I was on a jury in which I was pretty confident the guy held up a lady with a knife. But the cops never found the knife later on and the encounter was brief. The concept of “beyond a reasonable doubt” crept in and I felt a 90-10 chance wasn’t sufficient to convict. You are crazy if we can ever know for sure.
Take Cosby. He clearly did it in retrospect. After the first accuser, it was hard to nail down for sure and countless more came forward before folks or police finally took notice. What would you say the chances Cosby did it after only one accuser? Surely folks can and do lie on occasion? Do you dismiss completely or do you consider there is a chance? We clearly should have taken the accusations more seriously. How many women had to pay with their psychological health?
Fast forward to the Duke lacrosse accusers. They clearly did not perpetrate the crime. But the DA took the word of the accuser and used the public mistrust of fraternities to convict them in the court of public opinion. There was certainly a chance it could have happened. An investigation was warranted. The public should have withheld judgment but most did not – they simply convicted the boys without any real evidence.
Whenever accusations occur, there is a non-zero chance they could be correct. We are then left with how much risk we are willing to accept. Teachers, just like the Duke lacrosse players, want beyond a reasonable doubt before conviction as well they should. Parents and the public want virtually no chance of misconduct to send their kids. Thus, we have differing interests. The best case is a ressignment of the teacher while a private investigation occurs. Rafe did not allow that to happen. That doesn’t mean he is guilty. But it does prevent an investigation from occurring completely under the radar. LA is now forced to either publish the fact that there are safety concerns or end the investigation. If they have real concerns, they have no choice. Rafe forced there hand. While this is circumstantial, it leads me to question his motives, especially the nonsense about him being “tortured” by getting paid to read the newspaper. Why doesn’t he volunteer to work on curriculum for other teachers and make productive use of his time.
Rafe is clearly an effective teacher. For everyone’s sake, I hope he is proven innocent. But there is no way that LA can end this investigation at this point until all the facts are disclosed. And you all have ensured that folks will make up there mind without all the evidence. Congratulation.
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If these allegations were so potentially serious, why did LAUSD sit on them for 10 years?
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The “evidence” supports that he is an award winning teacher with no skeletons in the closet. So, lets discuss the lack of evidence, shall we? Lets discuss Bill Cosby. How many women came out and said he was a rapist who drugged then raped them? 40, more than 40?
Where, here, are the victims? A supposed victim from 40 years ago comes out, after the lead investigator calls his 80 year old mother and tells him to come out? Were there allegations 40 years ago? Those women in the Cosby case, some, and certainly 1, came out when it occurred, and the 1 bought a lawsuit and was paid off. Where are the victims here? ONE statement of something that likely is fabricated, 40 years ago, from summer camp? Really?
Then, they go after his non-profit. Then they go after his taxes. Then they interrogate him about prior girlfriends. Were they trying to get some names to see who they could give a bit of payola to come out nd tell some lies?
Yes, Cosby had a reputation as the best tv dad there ever was–but allegations and suspicions and payoffs were occurring over his entire career. Enough victims/witnesses came forward that it could no longer be swept under the carpet.
So lets discuss Mr. Esquith now, shall we? NO ONE filed charges against him during his entire life/career. Only now, when the district wants to ruin him, did it, the district, locate a man to say that 40 years ago, he was inappropriately touched, at summer camp. FORTY years ago, and he came out of vapor. Poof. How convenient.
That isn’t enough for the district though, they have to ruin this man, through and through.
Would I let my child go on a trip with him? Yes. There is, and was, no reason to believe anything untoward was occurring. Meanwhile, I have been a very involved parent, and would have volunteered to go along. Often when our child was young, my husband volunteered to go along so there would be someone to look after the boy students. Parental involvement is often welcomed.
You cannot tell me that in his entire career, if anyone, ANYONE, witnessed something untoward, they would not have come forward. Gone are the days when I was a child and priests were silently abusing alter boys. Today’s kids are much more aware and savvy. If this was going on, SOMEONE would have heard about it before now. THIS is a witch hunt, plain and clear.
Now, I have no doubt that the powers that be in LAUSD have the financial means, and know some very shady business associates/financiers, who can create some evidence that Rafe Esquith is an elephant with a truck and tail and two tusks–and yet, that would be the furthest thing from the truth.
Don’t be fooled. Let the LACK of evidence speak. Let the lack of complaints speak. Let the lack of victims/witnesses speak.
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“Truth is beauty…” by Keats.
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Donna, let me address your points.
Bill Cosby is despicable. But that just goes to show that when someone has power, they have control. The victims often get nothing in these cases especially if there are not multiple victims and or indisputable proof. On a much smaller scale, earlier this year I caught the chairman of my school board hiding comments on his Facebook page. He told everyone I threatened his life and had the police/security follow me. He works for Dennis Bakke, the owner of for-profit Imagine Schools. I have a top secret clearance, prior military and an impeccable record. But even though I showed school officials lied over and over again, the judge says I have “conspiracy theories” and totally backs the charter school plant who has never disclosed his conflicts of interest. Yes, the folks in power are believed by default.
So let’s talk about molestation. My friends and I have talked about this at length. No normal adult male is even attracted to underage girls. It just doesn’t happen. Maybe adults are intrigued by 17-yr-old Brittney Spears but not a 9-13-yr-old. They actually have brain scans that can determine if folks are aroused by various images. Molesters are never “cured”, they just “learn to control” their behavior. This is one reason I do not support letting true sexual predators out of jail (not the 18-yr-old was involved with a 15-yr-old but the true molesters). If anybody ever wants to prove their innocence, submit to these brain scans. No, I am not saying that’s the only way to prove innocence, but it’s pretty definitive.
I realize you are upset about LA’s charter schools and teachers actually being measured. I do not know the specifics of LA’s behavior. They likely should turn these things over to the police. But for you to believe that the public doesn’t have a right to know about allegations is completely out of left field. If nothing is found, they should provide an apology and his reputation will be intact. If there are files on his computer and other allegations from parents/students who don’t want to be caught up in this mess, then LA is in a difficult position. They can’t divulge all the info based on procedure. But yet the teacher can make any statements he wants. He can lie with impunity.
A good friend is a family law attorney. The stories I hear are horrendous. Many times a single parent learns of abuse well after it has happened. They see signs but nothing definitive. Thus, the abuse happens much longer than it should have. An offender will never out themselves. We owe it to all kids to err in their defense. Parents have no patience for anyone who believes a teacher’s right to remain in their job outweighs a kid’s rights to be safe. Pay the teacher while the investigation occurs. But be sure before putting kids in ther.
I have no idea what happened nor does anybody else. By all accounts, he is a very effective teacher. He also gets but one voice in the policies of the schools. Not every teacher can be as effective as he is with their skill set. How about we make a deal. We let this play out over the next couple of months. If it turns out much ado about nothing, we can pitch in for his defense fund and give him a little extra. If there were real concerns, then he should not be with children. Can’t we just hit the pause button?
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Virginia…I had been addressing my comments to KnowNothing, the don’t know the facts guy, not you….however, in reading your fantasized analogy to Bill Cosby, I wonder if you too are on this site at the direction of the district and their lawyers, to misdirect the conversation by using salacious innuendo against an innocent teacher? Certainly seems so.
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40 years ago, teachers often patted you on the arm or gave you a hug and it was out of concern or empathy, the news media has turned such innocence into an ugly environment.
Virginia is right to want to protect her children, but her “profiling” of teachers is driven by an unwarranted undeserved bias built by a sensationalist media looking for viewers. Yes, there are bad clerics, there are bad, people, there are even bad politicians and we have let the media establish THAT as the profile for all of us.
I won’t left kids near me or enter into inappropriate discussions (and what are those anyway? You DO see what the media -songs/movies/video games- show the children of today!
Perhaps it’s a good thing that Pearson-Gates wants to replace us with cold, unfeeling, emotionless operators of Artificial Intelligence who just “teach” without feeling.
Is that better for your kids?
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“40 years ago, teachers often patted you on the arm or gave you a hug and it was out of concern or empathy,. . . ”
And I did that until the day I retired in May. Oh, I heard the “never touch a student” nonsense (and I’m being particularly nice with ‘nonsense’). I couldn’t begin to count the times that a pat on the back, a touch on a shoulder or arm communicated to the student that, “Hey, someone cares about what is going on with you at the moment” I could see it in their eyes, that minor sense of very human relief that the student didn’t have to be alone in his/her feelings. Contrary to what many think, there is a very human element to the art and practice of teaching.
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This man from 40 years ago who seemingly claimed as a boy, that his teen camp counselor Rafe pushed him or something, has reneged. He is not in this legal mix…so that it old news.
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to virginaasp
You’d be better off using your real name… for credibility’s sake, and your crusade to publicize teachers private evaluations and VAM scores is misguided.
Stop. Please.
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THANK YOU Virginiasgp.
Would you want your kids to be in his class where he is accused of molestation and ALL THIS OTHER STUFF from various people? Plus they got stuff on his computer?
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Show me the proof, Know. Show me the proof. You have proof? You have years and years of proof that he molested kids and “ALL THIS OTHER STUFF” from various people? What people? The fabricated people? And stuff on his computer — “his” computer — computers that they stole from the theatre room along with $100,000 in musical instruments, etc., that they had time to tamper with–? I have bridge to sell you.
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Believe it or not, I—and perhaps others—are open to being persuaded by you.
Given that, could you answer some questions and give some clarity here?
(I’d really like some answers here, so when I teach civics to my students, I can tell them whether or not you and I and they are still living in a Constitutional democracy with the freedoms that go along with that. I’m not really sure anymore.)
——————————
— Can a third party law firm hired by a school district effectively blackmail—under threat of indefinite suspension or termination—one of its employees into giving up his Constitutional rights to privacy—especially, as in this case here, the school district refuses to disclose the foundations or suspicions for requesting this private information?
If the answer to that question is “YES”, then that can only mean one thing:
— that NO ONE who is employed by ANYONE ANYWHERE has ANY true and effective Constitutional rights to privacy… that is, if the employer—outside the context of a civil lawsuit or deposition process—can simply extort that employee into giving up all those Constitutional rights to privacy, using a threat of indefinite suspension or termination to compel such cooperation whenever the employer feel like doing so.
Am I missing something?
Is there a lawyer — or anyone reading this, for that matter — in the house who can provide clarity here?
Because, frankly, I’m stumped.
Here are those questions in context:
———–
Also, prior to Geragos filing a lawsuit, there was… well… there was no civil lawsuit, so I don’t get exactly why and how Sedgwick, as LAUSD’S legal representative, can demand or even ask Rafe or the non-profit for any such documents. It’s one thing if there’s a lawsuit, and Sedgwick subpoenas this evidence as part of discovery… but there isn’t.
Also, in the event of an actual prosecution by the Federal, County, State, or City prosecutors, those prosecutors possess the power to get a judge to issue subpoenas for such documents. However, even in that case, IT’S NOT SEDGWICK’S JOB DO TO SO. They’re not prosecutors in this or any other case.
As yet, there is no such prosecution of Rafe, the non-profit, or anyone else.
As someone else said, there’s an implied promise / threat in the communication from Sedgwick to Rafe and the non-profit—a carrot and stick, if you will. Sedgwick promises that if one of both of those parties voluntarily turns over this documentation, this will “expedite” the process, and the process will, as a result, come to an earlier completion. The other side of that sword is that there is a threat that, if you don’t voluntarily cooperate, then who knows how long this will drag on for?
And who knows if we don’t just fire you for not cooperating with an investigation. There are teachers who’ve been in LAUSD’s teacher jail for years… with no end to their incarceration in sight.
Considering all of this, how voluntary is the request that Sedgwick is making?
Can a third party law firm hired by a school district effectively blackmail—under threat of indefinite suspension or termination—one of its employees into giving up his constitutional rights to privacy—especially, as in this case here, the school district refuses to disclose the foundations or suspicions for requesting this private information?
If that’s the case, then NO ONE who is employed by ANYONE ANYWHERE has ANY true and effective constitutional rights to privacy… that is, if the employer—outside the context of a civil lawsuit or deposition process—can simply extort that employee into giving up all those constitutional rights to privacy, using a threat of indefinite suspension or termination to compel such cooperation whenever the employer feel like doing so.
Am I missing something?
Is there a lawyer in the house who can provide clarity here?
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I’m not saying that he is guilty. I’m just saying it makes no sense to take any risks. Heck, pay him a big severance and let him go. I just don’t want any possibility of my daughter being molested. I have known women who have been raped. It really destroys them. If there is any realistic chance that it is happening (like in the Catholic churches), we should take all precautions. Put monitors in his class at all times like when a women visits a male ob/gyn.
Are you folks seriously saying put this guy back in a class without any investigation and no monitors?
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Have you read “Othello.” Lies destroy people. I hope you’re not a vet from Iraq who lost his senses in an explosion. There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq our leader said.
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You who KNOW NOTHING…as I have asked many times…identify yourself so we can know who sent you here to imply mischief. You are so full of bull, and you are obviously a shill for the district.
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Ellen Lubic, not sure you intended this to me but I have no dog in LA’s fight. But I am the parent in this story. I alternately get accused of making statements behind anonymity and of wanting the spotlight. I wish my critics would make up their minds.
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I have two daughters and I would love to have them in his class. I wish I could hire him and bring him to teach them at home.
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VSGP,
Your daughter is more likely to be molested by you, a family member, or a neighbor. How can we protect your daughter from those potential and more likely risks? Should we take your advice and cut you from the family while giving you a generous severance? The risks are just too great, right? Notice that this is the core of your argument. Geez.
I would advocate for avoiding fear mongering when the facts are certainly not known. There is no reason to send us back to the Dark Ages with the inquisition of fear argument.
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It is VERY apparent that you have never taught in recent years. Only a teacher is presumed guilty and must prove that they are innocent. Just the accusation alone is enough to ruin a career.
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How and where to reply to you, Virginia? You believe what you want to, and I will believe what I want to. When I’m shown believable plausible FACTS, when victims come out of the woodwork, then, my mind will be changed. Until then, LAUSD is on a witch hunt. They’ve done it before, they’re doing it now. The sad part of it all? If Esquith wins, the district will go belly up, and Broad wins by dismantling the district and buying up all the schools. Bravo.
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As for the physical stuff… I have said
at Union meetings… NO TOUCHING
EVER… kids are always moving in
to hug you, and I always put out my
arm with an open palm and say,
“High five!” the kid responds by
high-five… or I’ll do a fist pound gesture.
If the child is hurt over this, my standard
line is, ‘Don’t take it personal. I only hug
my own kids.” and that suffices to make
the child feel better.
This is what it has come to.
Also, kids infrequently ask questions of
a sexual nature… “Can you get a sex disease
from- ?” I IMMEDIATELY SHUT THAT
DOWN, and tell other teachers to do
likewise.
“Nope. Not goin’ there. Any questions lilke
that, ask you mom’s and dad’s.” and say that
with as forceful tone as possible. Teachers
have done otherwise have been thrown in
teacher jail.
No bawdy humor either…
Rafe is obviously more easy-going in this
regard… and he paid the price for it… as
LAUSD took this and twisted it for their
own ignoble ends.
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Jack, I heard former Eastern Michigan University professor Trevor Gardner address the issue of touching when he spoke to student teachers at U of Michigan’s School of Education back in the mid-1990s (I was a field supervisor for secondary math student teachers from ’93 to ’98). His talk was brilliant and he made a strong case for touching, in specified ways and contexts, as something students desperately need, particularly males and specifically many of the “tough guys.” I was so happy to hear what he had to say.
Only a year later, a local high school principal from Ann Arbor who’d come from Chicago Public Schools, was brought in to speak to that group of student teachers. He spent nearly all his time addressing all the ways that teachers could be sued by students. His advice was completely counter to Dr. Gardner’s. I commented to another supervisor that I was surprised that the entire group of student teachers (all subjects and all grade levels) didn’t quit the profession on the spot.
We can teach from the heart or we can teach in fear. There’s no third way. That’s not to promote ignorant recklessness. But there are ways to protect oneself within reason and still teach with humanity and integrity. If I couldn’t do that, I’d go into something else entirely, and I urge every teacher to fight for the right to be a human being in the classroom, not a lawyer, not a drill sergeant, not an automaton.
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According to at least one LAUSD principal with whom I spoke, high fives are inappropriate touching.
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“According to at least one LAUSD principal with whom I spoke, high fives are inappropriate touching.”
Okay, so if high-fives are not allowed, and fist-pounds are not allowed, and you can’t make even the most miniscule hand-to-hand contact, what does a teacher do when one of the little tykes run at you with open arms? Jump back?
Should you backpedal furiously away from the child?
Or immediately turn around, and furiously run the other way?
Grab the phone and call the office, screaming, “Send security!!! Now!!! A six-year-old is moving close to me and trying to hug me!!! OH MY GOD!!! HERE HE COMES AGAIN!!!! NOOOOO!!!!”
It’s getting crazy. There’s one teacher who never leaves the front of the class during instruction. He then moves to his desk, where there’s a semi-circle of tape on the floor—like the three-point line in basketball. When a child needs to give or get something from the teacher, the child’s feet stops at the boarder, extends his arm to give or get papers to pass out or whatever.
We live in strange times.
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“As for the physical stuff… I have said at Union meetings… NO TOUCHING EVER…”
See my response to Jim Realini @ 8:11
You are suggesting an inhuman way to teach.
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I live in the world of the practical.
Somebody just posted:
“According to at least one LAUSD principal with whom I spoke, high fives are inappropriate touching.”
HERE’S MY REPLY:
Okay, so if high-fives are not allowed, and fist-pounds are not allowed, and you can’t make even the most miniscule hand-to-hand contact, what does a teacher do when one of the little tykes run at you with open arms? Jump back?
Should you backpedal furiously away from the child?
Or immediately turn around, and furiously run the other way?
Grab the phone and call the office, screaming, “Send security!!! Now!!! A six-year-old is moving close to me and trying to hug me!!! OH MY GOD!!! HERE HE COMES AGAIN!!!! NOOOOO!!!!”
It’s getting crazy. There’s one teacher I know who never leaves the front of the class during instruction. He then moves to his desk, where there’s a semi-circle of tape on the floor—like the three-point line in basketball. When a child needs to give or get something from the teacher, the child’s feet stops at the boarder, extends his arm to give or get papers to pass out or whatever.
It’s like Howard Hughes with the germ-aphobia.
We live in strange times.
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They may be strange times, indeed, but I prefer to help to make these times a bit more human for those students who could use a little “human empathy and help”.
And as far as accusations go, hell, I worried more about administrators making trumped up charges against me than I ever worried about a student. That’s because I felt the sting of the attempted trumped up charges quite personally, luckily the person that the administration wanted to do their dirty work was “too human” and refused to be a part of their big lie.
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Next we’ll be suing doctors for giving physicals. “Sorry, doc. You touched a patient 40 yeas ago, and now must be punished”
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Duane – in the morning as I made my way to the library, I would have multiple primary students getting ready for the day rush over to give me a hug. I would give them a quick hug back and move along. It was when the older middle school students got too familiar that I became uncomfortable and tried to avoid unnecessary contact.
There is a time and place for everything, but I don’t see the harm with a fist bump or a pat on the back or a shoulder squeeze. I guess we were lucky nobody came after us.
Congrats on your retirement. Don’t be surprised if your life stays as busy as when you were working. It just seems that free time quickly fills up with new activities. Enjoy!
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In the mid 1970’s, Senator Frank Church conducted a commission that investigated the horror of and abuse of the CIA over decades, operating with complete immunity and cavalier arrogance.
What Church revealed about our country’s tactics and operations is still shocking and revolting forty years later.
We can only hope that LAUSD and General Consul Holmquist, in particular, some day have to stand under such scrutiny instead of being the one who has always gotten to define and proclaim “fitness” and “morality in education”.
Holmquist IS the brainchild and apologist of LAUSD’s version of Abu Ghraib.
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Holmquist is indeed a culprit in this case and many others. He is hired to represent the BoE and the LAUSD district, but he has failed so many times that he should have been fired long ago. The taxpayers are in debt for his big, ill-earned salary.
Who decides to keep this inept lawyer, especially after his failure to find the two year old emails between Deasy and Apple and Pearson on how to prepare winning bids? Why did it take Annie Gilbertson, a KPCC reporter, to ferret out those damning emails that are now in the hands of the FBI and the SEC?
Why did Holmquist, immediately after this expose, work with the district and the BoE to destroy all the two year old evidence, and to attempt not to save any more emails? (Ask Steve Zimmer about all this.) This is all public record. Even the lax LA Times reported on this, as well as this blog site.
And why now, with this manufactured witch hunt filled with innuendo but no facts, against an exemplary teacher such as Rafe Esquith, does neither the district, Holmquist, the LASR, nor the LA Times, not report on the lawsuit filed against Supt. Ramon Cortines for his ostensibly harassing a male lover whom he wooed from San Francisco to LAUSD, when he was hired as Supt. in the early 2000s, and whom he appointed as head of the LAUSD Real Estate Department at a 6 figure salary? And whom he recently fired as soon as his admitted sex partner’s 14 sex charges were filed in this lawsuit against the deep pockets of LAUSD which uses taxpayer funds to pay for all of the Superintendents personal life behaviors. Once again, the public can be made to pay for Cortines’ ill-advised sex life.
See the case on file with LA County, and the new cause of action by this harassed man, that of his retaliatory firing.
Seems anyone who complains about the dirty dealings at LAUSD administration will get punished, with Holmquist leading the charge to defame and destroy whistle blowers and truth tellers. But teachers get the ax, while Superintendents walk away with the big bucks and thereafter reside under the protection of Big Daddy, Eli Broad.
Where is there ANY moral behavior at Beaudry…the LAUSD building that was sold to the district by Eli Broad?
For those wanting to know more…read Robert Skeels, Cynthia Liu at K12 News Network, Hemlock on the Rocks, the LA Times for a starter…and of course this blog archives.
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Shuttle but has it that Holmquist was not qualified for his position when he was hired. Word is the district, as it usually does, hired Holmquist who had a law degree from an unaccredited law school. The job required graduation from an accredited law school. So, as in the case of Cortines lover being appointed to a position he was not qualified for, lausd’s race to the bottom continues.
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Whatever the outcome of this case I hope Diane’s reporting on this blog helps people wake up and realize that the reformists don’t play.
They are in this education reform business to make big, big money and to carve out positions of great power over others and they do not fight cleanly, fairly, or with any kind of moral imperative.
Winning is EVERYTHING to these types of people who gravitate into the reformist movement. “Won’t Back Down” wasn’t just a catchy name for a pro-charter movie, it is part of their makeup.
Those who come hear and breathlessly wish that the “facts” or “proof” or “truth” would be shared with the reformists think, wrongly, that these things would make a difference and spur change. They will not.
Complaining about how illogical, unfair, or against accepted research their programs are does nothing either. They ignore it, manufacture supportive research themselves, and smear all opponents.
Parental angst and anger is not enough either, as we’ve seen in NYS, despite record numbers of opting out families the response was not reflective re-evaluation of policies but rather types and severity of retaliatory revenge.
They don’t play.
This is a war. Billions of dollars are at stake. The future of our democracy is at stake. Our children’s future lives are at stake. Those are big stakes and the fight reflects that.
Prepare yourselves accordingly.
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Wow. Great comment, Chris. This could be a blog post by itself- and it should be. Thanks.
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I wish that Howard Blume,
the L.A. Times reporter who wrote
the latest piece, would have asked
LAUSD officials:
“So has all this information been turned
over to the Los Angeles Police Department?
Do THEY have a comment on the status
of THEIR investigation into this matter?”
I mean, isn’t investigating this ultimately
LAPD’s job? Why aren’t they yet involved?
My guess is that LAUSD has not gone and
handed anything over to the police, because they
fear that LAPD would review the evidence,
interview the appropriate people, then conclude
that there was nothing to any of it.
LAUSD investigators are NOT part of law enforcement
(they formerly were… as they are retired LAPD
detectives.) They’re Human Resource Dept. guys
in suits. They have no power to detain, arrest,
or seek subpoenas for evidence or testimony from
a judge… Their big bluff is that teachers will
wrongly conclude that they do have such power.
By keeping the real police in the dark for the time being,
LAUSD can conduct it’s own wide-ranging probe,
then can then leak the results to the public as is…and
ruin Rafe… The already have, actually.
His life as he knew it before effectively is OVER,
whether Rafe turns out to be innocent or not.
I know one teacher (not LAUSD) who was falsely accused
of slapping a high school student’s buttocks… and
was placed in the equivalent of teacher jail.
He denied it, then months later, checked with
the police to see if this had been reported.
It hadn’t. He then filed a complaint against
the school district for not reporting it to HIS OWN
ALLEGED CONDUCT to the police, and
with the state ed. board…
“They’re saying I’m a pervert… if they really
think that is true, has this been reported?
“If it has NOT been reported…
“Why haven’t those who knew about this, but failed to
report it, not lost their jobs, and been brought up on
charges?”
He correctly guessed the incident had not
been reported to the police.
Some other district employees then did so, and
the alleged child victim denied ever making this
accusation, and the teacher returned to
the classroom.
Every LAUSD employee is “a mandated
reporter”. If you discover or even
suspect there was any criminal conduct
of child abuse on the part of a teacher,
administrator, employee, student,
(or parent for that matter)…,
you are legally required to contact
law enforcement as soon as possible… with
a maximum time limit of 36 hours from
the time when you became aware. If you
fail to do so within 36 hours, you can
be prosecuted, and your license revoked.
Also… consider the expense that this
totally unfocused, out-of-control fishing
expedition is costing taxpayers…
Just think of the cost of the man hours expended
combing through each of the computers in
Rafe’s room… with years of data, emails,
internet histories, etc…. all on LAUSD’s
and the taxpayers’ dime… just to retrieve
a GOTCHA bit of electronic data to be
used against Rafe.
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Howard Blume and his cohorts are only allowed to write what they are told….they are on penalty of firing if they told all they know. Their big boss, Beutner, and their lower level bosses (even Karin), are all charter school supporters and under the influence of Eli Broad, Richard Riordan, and their fellow privatizers.
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Go to the article, and ask your questions in the comments section. I suggest everyone do so.
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Drew, I went right to the Exhibits at that link, and you’re not precise in what you’re writing here. Yeah, David Holmquist is LAUSD’s top in-house counsel, and investigators working under Holmquist’s direction interviewed Rafe, his students, and other.
However, it’s not those LAUSD investigators (“H.R. guys in suits” as you call them) who are the people requesting the financial and operation records from the non-profit, nor are they the ones asking Rafe for his last 15 years of personal financial stuff.
It’s this “Sedgwick” law firm, whose attorneys are not LAUSD employees, but a third party law firm. In the correspondence with Rafe’s lawyer, these attorneys repeatedly refuse answer any questions as to exactly who in LAUSD hired them? Cortines? Holmquist? To whom do they take orders? The ignore such questions again and again.
Geragos, Rafe’s lawyer, points out that in previous litigation when representing LAUSD, they did some pretty whacked stuff.
In a molestation lawsuit filed by a 14 year-old girl against an LAUSD administrator, Sedgwick lawyers claimed that the 14 year-old girl was not a victim… that she gave her consent to the molestation, so that made it O.K.
Yowsa!
It’s one of the Exhibits at your original link
Click to access Complaint-Conformed.pdf
Also, prior to Geragos filing a lawsuit, there was… well… there was no civil lawsuit, so I don’t get exactly why and how Sedgwick, as LAUSD’S legal representative, can demand or even ask Rafe or the non-profit for any such documents. It’s one thing if there’s a lawsuit, and Sedgwick subpoenas this evidence as part of discovery… but there isn’t.
Also, in the event of an actual prosecution by the Federal, County, State, or City prosecutors, those prosecutors possess the power to get a judge to issue subpoenas for such documents. However, even in that case, IT’S NOT SEDGWICK’S JOB DO TO SO. They’re not prosecutors in this or any other case.
As yet, there is no such prosecution of Rafe, the non-profit, or anyone else.
As someone else said, there’s an implied promise / threat in the communication from Sedgwick to Rafe and the non-profit—a carrot and stick, if you will. Sedgwick promises that if one of both of those parties voluntarily turns over this documentation, this will “expedite” the process, and the process will, as a result, come to an earlier completion. The other side of that sword is that there is a threat that, if you don’t voluntarily cooperate, then who knows how long this will drag on for?
And who knows if we don’t just fire you for not cooperating with an investigation. There are teachers who’ve been in LAUSD’s teacher jail for years… with no end to their incarceration in sight.
Considering all of this, how voluntary is the request that Sedgwick is making?
Can a third party law firm hired by a school district effectively blackmail—under threat of indefinite suspension or termination—one of its employees into giving up his constitutional rights to privacy—especially, as in this case here, the school district refuses to disclose the foundations or suspicions for requesting this private information?
If that’s the case, then NO ONE who is employed by ANYONE ANYWHERE has ANY true and effective constitutional rights to privacy… that is, if the employer—outside the context of a civil lawsuit or deposition process—can simply extort that employee into giving up all those constitutional rights to privacy, using a threat of indefinite suspension or termination to compel such cooperation whenever the employer feel like doing so.
Am I missing something?
Is there a lawyer in the house who can provide clarity here?
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If Esquith’s lawyer doesn’t know the answer to thT question, he’s in trouble. I’m sure his lAwyer knows what to do in this case. When a teacher engages an attorney and informs the district, all communication from the district should be through the attorney.
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Let’s not forget to thank Rafe Esquith, his Lawyer Mr. Geragos, and all those who are assisting in this case.
His success is our success.
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It is truly sad that LAUSD chooses to discredit this teacher with further allegations that in reality appear contrived and vague. Any teacher who has been in teacher jail knows about the computer thing. They ask for your computer when you!re sent there and if they can’t find something, they make it up and put it on your computer. Any outrageous inuendo they make up and make those charges that they present to the BOE to co sign for termination. I thought Esquith would return to the classroom because we need teachers like him. In Lausd, the corruption, waste,abuse of public funds should be investigated, not a respected, valued teacher that the community loves. So sorry Mr. Esquith, as I a for the hundreds of other veteran teachers who were treated in this despicable manner.
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“(LAUSD officials) ask for your computer when you!re sent there and if they can’t find something, they make it up and put it on your computer.”
Now you’re getting in the realm of sociopathic, psychopathic, and truly evil behavior…
Let me get this straight. You’ve heard (or personally experienced) yourself the following:
1) LAUSD investigators ask for a teacher’s computer, hoping to find porn, or an internet browser history that includes porn sites;
2) the naive, but trusting teacher turns it over, confident that both he and his computer are clean as a whistle;
3) LAUSD investigators and /or forensic computer experts meticulously comb through and search the entire computer, and come up with nothing;
and…
4) Undaunted, LAUSD investigators and/or their bosses respond by planting porn, or planting records of porn internet history on the browser… or, without planting anything, they just falsely claim to have found such stuff.
You’ve actually heard that same story recounted multiple times? Really? Or you’re claiming that it happened to you personally?
If that’s true, the person or persons at LAUSD responsible—those who ordered it, those who carried it out—deserve to spend eternity in Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell.
Yowsa!
I don’t know how someone who does something so evil can ever sleep at night.
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Well, Drew, you were wrong about at least one thing.
Based on this piece just posted twenty minutes ago, LAPD police ARE involved after all. (Exactly when they joined in this affair, I’d like to know.)
Reading this latest, it seems that the two sides are polarized beyond the point where there could ever be any kind of settlement outside of court:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
JUST IN: LAPD investigates Esquith,
lawyers ‘declare war’ on LAUSD
by Mike Szymanski
Posted on August 14, 2015
2:34 pm
LA School Report has confirmed that an LAPD sex crimes unit has an open investigation of celebrated teacher Rafe Esquith involving allegations of “inappropriate touching.” Meanwhile, Esquith’s attorneys are striking back with threats of additional lawsuits and a “declaration of war against LAUSD.”
One of Esquith’s attorneys, Ben Meisales, said, “This continued defamation by LAUSD knows no bounds. This is a slap at all hard-working teachers and it has created a declaration of war against LAUSD.”
Lead attorney Mark Geragos added, “People all across the country are watching these unscrupulous tactics. LAUSD is acting as a criminal cartel that needs to be put out of business, and we will put them out of business.”
Meanwhile, the Sexually Exploited Child Unit of the West Bureau Sex Crimes of the Los Angeles Police Department has a case that is opened against Esquith and being investigated by Detective Rachel Saavedra. The attorneys for Esquith said they were unaware of the investigation, which is being conducted by police at the Olympic Division of the LAPD in the district of the Hobart Boulevard Elementary School where Esquith taught fifth grade until he was unceremoniously taken out of the classroom last April and confined during the day hours to the “teachers jail” in a downtown LA building.
On Thursday, Geragos filed a class action lawsuit against LA Unified not only claiming age discrimination and unfair business practices, but defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Hours after receiving the lawsuit, LAUSD issued a letter for the first time dealing with alleged serious allegations against Esquith, including “highly inappropriate conduct involving touching of minors” during his time as a district teacher as well as “inappropriate photographs and videos of a sexual nature” on his school computer. The letter also mentions allegations of “threats to a parent and two students” and “possible ethical” violations of district policy regarding Esquith’s nonprofit after-school program, the Hobart Shakespeareans.
Through attorneys, Esquith denies all the allegations.
School officials are required by law to report all sexual allegations involving children to the proper authorities, and because of the “inappropriate touching” allegations, LA School Report asked LAUSD if police officials were notified.
Shannon Haber, the district’s director of Communications & Media Relations, issued a statement reading, “Yes, as mandated reporters, we always report allegations of suspected child abuse to the appropriate agency.”
LAPD officials had no further details about the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile, Geragos said he plans to ask for a criminal investigation against the school district by going to the Department of Justice, and they also plan to file a lawsuit against Toni Tosello, the liabilities claims coordinator who wrote the Aug. 13 letter from LAUSD’s Risk Finance and Insurance Services department. The letter said that while investigating the original allegations (of a reading from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), they discovered “additional serious allegations of misconduct” by the 61-year-old teacher.
Meanwhile, Esquith’s attorneys claim the noted teacher is a victim of a “witch hunt” and that after one day, their class action has gone from about 200 hundred teachers to more than 1,000 who have contacted the office with similar complaints.
“The only child who was been hurt by all this is one of Rafe Esquith’s students who when LAUSD started this witch hunt attempted to commit suicide when [Esquith] was taken from the classroom,” Meiselas said.
Meanwhile, in a letter dated Thursday from Student Safety Investigation Team director Jose Cantu, the district asked for an interview with Esquith for the “investigation of alleged misconduct” according to the letter. They planned the interview on Aug. 18 with investigator Ray Johnson. That interview won’t happen, Esquith’s representatives said.
“The only discussion now about this will be in court,” Meisalas said.
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Forgot the link to the above article:
http://laschoolreport.com/just-in-lapd-investigates-esquith-lawyers-declare-war-on-lausd/#more-36054
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Hey, go easy on me there. I said that was just a guess, or a suspicion that LAPD was never brought in on this. I never said for sure.
However, here’s the latest Esquith case bombshells from that link you just posted
http://laschoolreport.com/just-in-lapd-investigates-esquith-lawyers-declare-war-on-lausd/#more-36054
— the number of individual LAUSD teachers wanting to join the class action part of Rafe’s case “has gone from about 200 hundred teachers to more than 1,000 who have contacted the office with similar complaints.” (yeah you read that right… over 1,000)
(Holy f*%ing sh%$!!!! I’m speechless a that bit of info. I had suspected there were a lot of teacher who felt they were mistreated, but THAT many??? For real???!!! The Deasy era in LAUSD must have been a Stalinist nightmare that is only now coming to light. Then again, maybe calling it the “Deasy Era” is a misnomer, as he’s gone. Perhaps it should be called the “Holmquist Era”.)
— LAPD has opened a case on Rafe for “inappropriate touching” (Rafe’s lawyers claim to be totally unaware of this, as they have yet to be contacted.)
— when contacted, “LAPD officials had no further details about the ongoing investigation.”
— Rafe’s lawyers are striking back with threats of additional lawsuits and a making “declaration of war against LAUSD.”
— his lawyers further “called LAUSD a criminal cartel that needs to be put out of business, and we will put them out of business.”
— Geragos says Rafe’s lawsuit now also encompasses “age discrimination and unfair business practices, but defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
— Geragos has today asked “for a criminal investigation against the school district by going to the federal Department of Justice,”
— Geragos also filed “a lawsuit against Toni Tosello, LAUSD”s liabilities claims coordinator who wrote the Aug. 13 letter from LAUSD’s Risk Finance and Insurance Services department.
“The letter said that while investigating the original allegations (of a reading from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), they discovered “additional serious allegations of misconduct” by the 61-year-old teacher.”
— “Meanwhile, in a letter dated Thursday from Student Safety Investigation Team director Jose Cantu, the district asked for an interview with Esquith for the ‘investigation of alleged misconduct’ according to the letter. They planned the interview on Aug. 18 with investigator Ray Johnson.
“That interview won’t happen, Esquith’srepresentatives said.”
— Rafe’s other attorney Ben Meisalas says that, outside of a depostion or courtroom, Rafe will not answer any more questions from LAUSD.
” ‘The only discussion now about this will be in court,’ Meisalas said.”
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Oh and here’s the letter that Toni Tosello, LAUSD’s liabilities claims coordinator, sent to Geragos, in response to Geragos letter threatening a lawsuit.
(it includes quotes from the original Gerogos’ letter to Tosello… haven’t found Geragos’ original letter yet.)
Click to access Districts-Response-to-Esquith-Tort-Claim.pdf
As detailed above, this formed the basis for a separate lawsuit against Toni Tosello personally for defamation and maybe something else… I don’t know..
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I have no idea who is right or wrong in this situation but I am expecting Mark Geragos to win big – real big! Go, Mark!
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I just did a further perusal of the lawsuit docs, and noticed something:
Click to access Complaint-Conformed.pdf
In the previous documents he two investigators assigned full-time to Rafe Esquith’s case were Virgil County and Raymond Johnson, two retired, former detectives, who are now part of LAUSD’s Student Safety Investigative Team (SSIT) The SSIT, a newly-formed department (December 2014 or 2013, I forget) has been headed since its inception by Jose Cantu, a former school administrator (principal) who never worked in law enforcement.
The latest documents show that County & Johnson duo may have shrunk to just one, Raymond Johnson. He’s the only one attending meetings, or mentioned in the latest paperwork.
Now, it’s possible Virgil County is only temporarily off the case for some reason—i.e. summer vacation.
It’s also possible that, for whatever reason, Virgil County asked to be removed from the case… or, again, for whatever reason, David Holmquist and / or Jose Cantu—the head of LAUSD’s Student Safety Investigative Team—removed Virgil County from the case.
As for Ray Johnson, I just discovered this L.A. TIMES article from 1992 dealing with the search for a someone to replace the controversial LAPD Chief Darryl Gates (R.I.P.)—rightly or wrongly blamed for creating a poor police culture that led to the Rodney King incident, and the subsequent riots.
The finalists for Gates’ replacement Include…
“Ray Johnson, Inglewood Chief of Police”
(Inglewood borders L.A. in the south, and was the former home to the Lakers and the L.A. Kings hockey team… the L.A. Forum):
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-02-25/news/mn-2627_1_police-chief
Is this the same “Ray Johnson”? If it is him–or whoever it is— he no longer has any actual police powers whatsoever these days. He’s merely a bureaucrat investigator for LAUSD.
By the way, this “Ray Johnson” didn’t get the job to head LAPD. Willie Williams, Philadelphia’s top cop, did, and given the daunting challenges, he did a good job winning back some of the public’s trust.
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I’m going to make another educated prediction here.
With regards to the “inappropriate touching”, the lion’s share—or perhaps all—of the testimony will come not from Rafe’s students or their parents, but from adults who work for LAUSD at Hobart Elementary, Rafe’s school.
Yeah, Allie, I know. I was wrong about the LAPD police being excluded… this is again just more conjecture, so give me a break, Bubbee.
These adult teachers or adult administrators—to curry favor with their superiors, or in fear of what will happen to the for not doing so—will swear that they saw this “inappropriate touching,” even in the face of denials from others, such the alleged victims and other adults working for LAUSD who throw doubt on these claims, and have know Rafe for years, and have never witnessed this.
Then, after the kids and parents deny it, LAUSD investigators will claim that the kids are too threatened by Rafe to speak against him… it’s the Stockholm Syndrome… the victim has been brainwashed to protect the perpetrator of the abuse… or that the kids are just not emotionally and otherwise mature enough to recognize the inappropriate touching that they suffered and that the adults thankfully witnessed and reported.
At this point, the reaction to this explanation by the LAPD Sex Crimes detectives will be somewhat like the audience’s reaction (2:20) in Mel Brooks’ SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER *** :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmYIo7bcUw
*** from the classic comedy THE PRODUCERS
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“These adult teachers or adult administrators—to curry favor with their superiors, or in fear of what will happen to the for not doing so—will swear that they saw this “inappropriate touching,” even in the face of denials from others, such the alleged victims and from other adults working for LAUSD who throw doubt on these claims, and have known Rafe for years, and have never witnessed this.”
If this happened to me, if some adults lied about me and falsely claimed they saw me abuse a child, I would sue the ever-lovin’ sh$% out of those lying bastards.
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Pauline…although you are full of passion for lawsuits, actual teachers cannot find lawyers they can afford. Nor can they ever pay the freight of the truly experienced lawyers from the top firms, like Geragos who is probably doing this case on spec…but definitely not of the quality of the LAUSD external firms like O’Melveny and Myer which frequently is hired, on our tax money, to represent the true ‘perps’ at Beaudry. It is a lose lose situation. Hundreds of teachers have been pleading for pro bono representation, but all the major firms who do pro bono mandated casework, are not offering their brilliant attorneys help poor teachers who are falsely accused. It is a conundrum that your passion overlooks.
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Ultimately, guilty or innocent, Rafe’s name has been besmirched. Even if he wins his lawsuit, there will always be people who will doubt.
Rafe – hold your head up and don’t let them get to you. Forget teaching and move on – it isn’t worth the aggravation. Collect your paycheck and think about the fun you will have in retirement. It sounds like you have a lot of people in your corner, so take comfort in that. Your legacy will live on through all the students you have “touched” (emotionally not physically). Take care.
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I’ve noticed that a lot of faculty put in “Teacher Prison” are the master teachers of the building – The award winners who everyone looks up to.
It makes you wonder about the criteria used to disrupt a teacher’s life with bogus allegations.
This all sounds illegal. Why haven’t the courts already addressed this issue?
There’s a well thought of music teacher previously from Buffalo who ended up in Teacher Jail. That’s the first time I heard of it (prior to being a Ravitch blog reader). Teachers have been suspended (with pay) for inappropriate interaction with students in the Buffalo Public Schools, but only until their case is reviewed which takes a couple of months, not years and years. Teachers accused of inappropriate “sexual” conduct with a student have to answer to police and usually have their license revoked (sometimes they plea deal to keep their pension depending on the seriousness of the allegation).
It appears that the LA district does not have a protocol in place to deal with these situations. That is a serious lapse in administration which needs to be rectified.
Or they can do what Buffalo does – put offensive teachers into administrative positions (away from the students) which consist of a job title and little responsibility. The higher up the ladder, the more inept they appear to be. Of course, that doesn’t apply to some of the fine teachers singled out by the LAUSD.
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From reading the above comments, something occurred to me. Could this all be a plan by the LAUSD and the lawyer to:
Go after a very popular teacher in unethical ways, knowing full well there would be a huge outcry and backlash, all of which leads to them spending more money to fight their case, which leads to the financial demise of the LAUSD, and so charters can come in.
Is this feasible?
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I wrote about this possibility of bankrupting the district above. Also various other posts on this site. Many people for the past few years have felt that It is a real possibility that this is the game plan.
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No discussion of Esquith would be complete without looking at the case of another high-profice wrongfully targeted teacher, Jason Duchan:
http://laschoolreport.com/teacher-says-lewd-facebook-page-by-lausd-student-cost-him-job-health/
It’s another story of how LAUSD (mis)handles a case where a teacher is accused of something:
1) LAUSD and John Francis Polytechnic High (in LA.’s Sun Valley) teacher Jason Duchan discovers a student drawing genitals on his (the student’s) desk, then reports this to the principal, who then informs the student’s parents, causing the student to get in big trouble with the adults both at school and at home;
2) That same night, the student retaliates by fabricating a Facebook page that is supposedly created by the teacher, Jason Duchan, full of lewd images and writing—all in an effort to frame Duchan; the teacher remains unaware of the page’s existence for over a year;
3) A year or so later, LAUSD’s “Student Safety Investigative Team” (yeah, that’s what the call it) discovers the Facebook page, but does not deign to talk first to the teacher, Jason, Duchan, and ask him whether or not he was the lewd Facebook page’s actual creator, even though doing so would have cleared the matter up instantly;
4) Instead, Duchan is suspended and hauled off to “teacher jail” without being told the reason, where he languishes for weeks before discovering the charge—and not from LAUSD, but from another teacher, his school’s union rep; upon Duchan’s removal, LAUSD immediately sends out a letter informing all of the parents of students at the school that Duchan was under investigation for possibly being a danger to students;
5) The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) becomes involved and does what LAUSD’s quasi-police unit, “The Student Safety Investigative Team”, did not… they first go to Duchan to hear his side of things, who then tells it all — his innocence, how this was all the doings of a mischievous, vindictive student out to frame him, etc.;
The moment Duchan saw the Facebook page, he said he knew who created it. Two of the posts made reference to a student being accused of drawing genitals on a desk, and Duchan said the date the page was created corresponds exactly to the time he reported a student to the assistant principal for drawing genitals on a desk;
6) LAPD quickly investigates the matter, arrests the student for “false impersonation” on a Facebook page, and LAPD Detective Lisette Fuentes issues a statement fully exonerating Duchan;
7) Instead of putting Duchan back to work and apologizing to him, Jose Cantu, head of the district’s Student Safety Investigative Team, said that an active investigation of Duchan by the district is still underway, although he wouldn’t comment on the details; LAUSD investigators didn’t want to admit a mistake, so instead they continued to draw this out and incarcerate Duchan; but for some sympathetic media coverage, Duchan would still be languishing in Teacher Jail;
8) Two weeks later, and after this public outcry against LAUSD’s treatment of Duchan, (BELOW is a link to some TV coverage) Duchan was told by LAUSD that he could return to his classroom, but, as a condition of his return, demanded that he sign a paper that acknowledged he was still under investigation and could not talk about the case. Duchan said he refused to go back to the Sun Valley High campus because he had heard many students thought he was guilty, so he didn’t feel safe returning.
“They were putting me into a hostile environment. They had already sent letters home, and wouldn’t parents be upset to find out a teacher under investigation was back in the classroom?” he said.
Duchan, who teaches media art classes, said he went on medial leave and returned to the district on Feb. 2 as a full-time substitute teacher at a different school. He said the district will only offer him is his old job and no other full-time work. Duchan said he feels his name and reputation have been ruined at the campus.
“I’m trying not to cry when I talk about it,” he said. “I’m going through very severe PTSD, panic attacks, and I have acute insomnia.”
Here’s some television coverage of this (including an interview with grief-stricken Jason Duchan, which is painful to watch):
http://abc7.com/news/teacher-suspended-for-inappropriate-fb-posts-says-he-was-framed/521790/
Here’s the coverage of the Duchan case on this blog:
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L..A.’s KPCC radio just posted this article about the situation”
http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/08/14/53793/lausd-raises-more-allegations-against-rafe-esquith/
Most of it is the same, but in talking to Esquith’s attorney, they have a couple new tidbits:
KPCC:
Mark Geragos, Esquith’s attorney, derided the district’s actions in an email to KPCC.
“The LAUSD is being run like a Criminal Cartel,” Geragos wrote. “Rafe has decided that at great personal cost that their illegal activity needs to be exposed.”
Geragos later told KPCC by phone that he will be filing a federal class-action lawsuit next week. Among other issues, the attorney contends LAUSD is raising allegations against his client as part of an effort to get rid of teachers who are costly to the school district.
“LAUSD has a pattern and practice of trying to divest teachers of their pensions as they get older and this is one of the things they did with Rafe,” Geragos said.
LAUSD did not comment on Geragos’ remarks. A spokeswoman did say the school district is obligated to investigate all allegations against Esquith.
The class-action lawsuit is also expected to challenge so-called teacher jails in which instructors are assigned to locations such as education centers or their homes while allegations against them are resolved. One of Esquith’s attorneys has said teachers describe the assignments as “torture” and deny the instructors their due process rights.
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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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A friend and supporter of Rafe Esquith, the WASHINGTON POST’s Education writer Jay Mathews rallies to Rafe Esquith’s defense, but will this have any real effect on the situation?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/la-school-district-hits-new-low-seems-to-want-to-ban-its-best-teacher-forever/2015/08/14/1200d8f8-42a7-11e5-846d-02792f854297_story.html
———————–
L.A. School District Hits a New Low,
Seems to Want to Ban Its Best Teacher Forever
By Jay Mathews
August 14
I thought good sense would prevail at the Los Angeles Unified School District. I thought the people in charge would let their best teacher, the nationally known Rafe Esquith, go back to his fifth grade classroom at the Hobart Boulevard Elementary School and the books and Shakespeare plays that have enriched the lives of so many Hispanic and Korean children from low-income families.
But no.
After getting no reassurances that he would be returned to class, Esquith’s lawyers have filed suit against the district for suspending him in April for telling a joke in class that appears to have offended only one absurdly sensitive Hobart staffer. In turn the district has done its best to taint Esquith further by telling the Los Angeles Times — without any specifics — that its investigators are looking at “serious allegations of highly inappropriate conduct involving touching of minors before and during” Esquith’s 32 years in the school system.
[L.A. district continues to persecute one of the nation’s best teachers]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/la-district-continues-to-persecute-one-of-the-nations-best-teachers/2015/07/19/56ec5c60-2b43-11e5-a5ea-cf74396e59ec_story.html
The district said it also found “multiple inappropriate photographs and e-mails of a sexual nature” on his school computer and e-mails exchanged with students that were “inconsistent” with the district’s code of conduct. It said there were allegations of “threats to a parent and two students” and “possible ethical and District policy violations” related to the non-profit organization that supports the annual Shakespeare plays performed by his students, as well as field trips and other activities.
[L.A Superintendent: ‘When it comes to student safety, we are going to choose students over adults every single time.’]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/la-superintendent-when-it-comes-to-student-safety-we-are-going-to-choose-students-over-adults-every-single-time/2015/07/21/599d89d0-2f5c-11e5-97ae-30a30cca95d7_story.html
Esquith has denied wrongdoing. His attorneys say the latest allegations are outrageous. His lawsuit seeks his return to school and damages for alleged defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, retaliation and age discrimination. It blames the stress from the investigation for a bout of thrombosis that recently put him into the hospital for three days.
The school district has stripped Esquith’s classroom of all the books, theatrical equipment, computers and mementos that helped make Room 56 one of the liveliest classes anywhere. The lawsuit places their total worth at about $100,000, all purchased with private funds. There is no word from the district about returning them.
This began with one teacher’s complaint that Esquith’s reference to a character who pranced about in the nude in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” might offend children. The accusation was sent to a state agency, which said Esquith had done nothing wrong. But under the district’s new system of investigating the lives of hundreds of teachers after even minor complaints — a policy denounced recently by the Los Angeles Times — Esquith became the subject of a major investigation. The investigators asked him who he dated in college and who at the school disliked him. They asked for all his financial records since 2000.
This appears to be the kind of anything-goes investigation that could come up with disturbing allegations about any teacher in America if it wanted to. While there is always the possibility that district officials have turned up something serious, I don’t believe for a second that they have.
Esquith is the most imaginative, most energetic and most influential classroom teacher I have ever seen. I have attended several of the plays in Room 56 and wrote a book that described in detail how he inspired and trained the two young teachers who created the KIPP charter school network. I am glad he has aggressive attorneys to get at the root of the district’s allegations, but I fear that at age 61, he will never have a chance to resume his program at that school.
I hope he will find another place where he can teach the deep lessons that have in recent weeks elicited testimonials from many former students and celebrities who have supported the program, including actors Ian McKellen and Hal Holbrook. The four lively books he has written give teachers many ideas for unleashing their own talents. He is a hero to teachers in China and may now have more time to speak to educators in the United States, since he can no longer invite them to watch him in action in Room 56.
There is nothing left there that anyone would want to see, but the lawsuit lists what was taken. That gives you a sense of what future students there will miss. Among the listed items are many books, 30 copies each, now apparently locked away. They include “Of Mice and Men,” “Tom Sawyer,” “Huckleberry Finn,” “Lord of the Flies,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” and Esquith’s favorite, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
People often asked Esquith if he thought those titles were too advanced for fifth graders. He smiled at that. He showed every day how much more those children were ready for — even Shakespeare — if a teacher was ready to give it to them. That’s important to me and Esquith’s many admirers, but apparently not to the Los Angeles Unified School District.
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Speaking of someone “rallying”, there will be a “rally” this coming Monday morning, at 9:00 AM outside of Rafe’s school…
Monday, August 17,
9:00 am
at
Hobart Boulevard Elementary School
980 S Hobart Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(on Olympic Boulevard,
2 blks EAST of Western Avenue)
Rafe’s students, parents, community members, etc. will be there, and all are welcome.
The information is here at the HOBART SHAKESPEAREANS’ Facebook site:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hobart-Shakespeareans/219342221439640
——
“Hobart Shakespeareans
“MONDAY, AUGUST 17th, 2015, 9:00 AM:
“In front of Hobart Elementary School at 980 South Hobart Blvd, a rally for Rafe, and in support of all the teachers who have been subjected to Teacher Jail and worse.
“You are invited to attend, bring your signs and sunscreen, and please share this information with others. There will be press, so come prepared to share your story and your thoughts.
“See you there!!
“Especially if you are parents of current Hobart students, we hope to see you there!!!
“Thank you!”
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Unjustly jailed teacher and anti-teacher jail activist Lenny Eisenberg recently turned his sights on Sedgwick, the law firm that LAUSD’s top counsel David Holmquist hired to handle these matter:
Exposed: Guess Who’s Leading the LAUSD Witch Hunt Against Teachers
04 Aug 2015
Written by Leonard Isenberg
CONSIDER THIS —
How is it that the LAUSD’s go-to outside law firm Sedgwick L.L.P. (that was embroiled in the Miramonte scandal and sanctioned for covering up evidence) is running teacher investigations, teacher jail, and the current witch hunt against nationally acclaimed teacher Rafe Esquith?
As CityWatch has previously reported, LAUSD’s latest demand for 15 years of financial reports from the “Hobart Shakespeareans” non-profit (as well as Rafe Esquith’s own personal finances) was answered by Esquith’s friends with a rather novel and unprecedented four-minute video featuring Hal Holbrook, Ian McKellen and students whose lives have been positively impacted by Esquith:
Documents exclusively obtained by CityWatch show that this YouTube video came about in response to letters from the Sedgwick law firm, supposedly representing LAUSD, but refusing to share the reason for their authority for making such an intrusive and invasive request.
Here is the timeline of Sedgwick’s involvement:
— July 8, 2015 – Craig S. Barnes, Managing Partner of the Sedgwick law firm, contacts the Geragos law firm and says, “This investigation is now about alleged financial issues relating to the Hobart Shakespeareans.” What those issues are or whether they are justified in investigating Esquith is never addressed. And although they seek to do this without a subpoena, one must wonder why they didn’t bring a formal legal action against Esquith, if they really have reason to justify such an intrusive investigation.
—July 14, 2015 – The Geragos law firm responds, “It is not clear…
(1) who at LAUSD appointed your firm counsel,
(2) when your firm was retained,
(3) whether disclosures were made to stakeholders regarding your significant bill-able rate for the witch-hunt against Mr. Esquith…and
(4) what authority you have.
No response from either Sedgwick or LAUSD.
— July 20, 2015 – Managing Partner Barnes from Sedgwick says “[the] investigation is designed to determine Mr. Esquith’s compliance with government ethics laws in his actions with [the] Hobart Shakespeareans.”
Again, the basis for thinking that Esquith has violated any “government ethics laws,” or why a non-governmental entity like LAUSD or the Sedgwick law firm are investigating Esquith are both noticeable omissions.
And again, there is no statement as to why Esquith’s actions are being investigated in the first place.
— July 28, 2015 – The Geragos law firm responds on behalf of Esquith,
“Who hired you and who is paying your billable hours?”
No response.
Geragos now informs Sedgwick that, “Your July 20, 2015 letter to the ‘Shakespeareans’ and your statements concerning Mr. Esquith constitute ‘defamation of character per se.’ ”
Still no response.
— Esquith supporters respond with a YouTube video in defense of Esquith and the “Hobart Shakespeareans.”
Since Sedgwick still refuses to respond to any requests with regard to its authority or basis for going after Esquith, we did some digging ourselves into the Sedgwick law firm. And what we came up with is shocking, and might just be an all-new low for LAUSD’s behavior towards its teachers and students.
After reviewing the following about Sedgwick’s involvement in the Miramonte child abuse scandal cover-up (for which they were sanctioned), ask yourself if there is any credibility in LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines’ statement in a recent Washington Post article:
RAMON CORTINES: “When it comes to student safety, we are going to choose students over adults every single time.”
LAUSD was fined $6,000 for failing to disclose the existence of hundreds of photographs, some showing children being sexually abused by convicted Miramonte teacher Mark Berndt. Sedgwick was LAUSD’s lawyers on this one.
A judge ordered LAUSD to turn over digital copies of employee testimony that they earlier denied having. Sedgwick was LAUSD’s lawyers on this one too.
“In a sworn deposition, [LAUSD employee Rosa] Gianopoulos said she took a medical leave from the district because she felt pressure from her bosses.”
“When asked if it was [Asst. LAUSD General Counsel] McNair who was making her feel that way, [Gianopoulos] was instructed not to answer, with LAUSD (Sedgwick) attorney Craig S. Barnes claiming, ‘attorney-client privilege, work-product protection, and instruct(ed) her not to answer.’ ”
(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He’s a second generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com.)
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Oh, and as I said in and earlier comment, the actual new low for LAUSD and its law firm Sedgwick, LLP was pointed out by Geragos in the lawsuit filing, LAUSD and Sedgwick LLP did some pretty whacked stuff.
In a molestation lawsuit filed by a 14 year-old girl against an LAUSD teacher, Sedgwick lawyers claimed that the 14 year-old girl was really not a victim… that she gave her “consent” to the molestation, so that made it O.K.
It’s one of the Exhibits at your original link:
Click to access Complaint-Conformed.pdf
Here’s the Los Angeles Times coverage of this:
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-sex-20141114-story.html
————————————
L.A. TIMES: L.A. Unified officials are coming under fire for allowing their attorneys to argue that a 14-year-old student was mature enough to consent to sex with her middle school math teacher.
The arguments were made in a civil case that was filed last year by the student, who was seeking financial compensation from the district. She said she suffered emotional trauma from a five-month sexual relationship nearly four years ago with her teacher at Edison Middle School in Los Angeles.
District officials, defending their legal strategy Thursday, said they needed to rebut the student’s claim with evidence that she was a willing participant who had a prior history of sexual activity.
But the actions in the case, first reported by KPCC, were blasted by legal experts.
“The belief that middle school children can consent to sexual activity is something one would expect to hear from pedophile advocates, not the second-largest school district in the U.S.,” said John Manly, one of the attorneys representing plaintiffs in the Miramonte Elementary child abuse case.
David M. Ring, an attorney who has specialized in sex abuse cases for 25 years, said he had never heard of anyone presenting the sexual history of a minor in court and called the action despicable.
…
Manly called on the district to fire LAUSD attorney W. Keith Wyatt and others responsible for the handling of the case. Wyatt, in remarks to KPCC that further stoked the outcry, said it was a more dangerous decision to cross a street with oncoming traffic than to have sex with a teacher.
——————-
In defending their actions in the Esquith case, LAUSD Supintendent Cortines keeps blathering about how LAUSD and their law firm, Sedgwick LLP are scrupulous in claiming that the interests and safety are paramount, and how he “will not put their interests of adults ahead of the safety and well-being of children.”
Really?
Telling a 14 year-old molestation victim that she asked for it, and consented to it, and basically deserved it?
Accusing her of having “a prior sexual history” that negates any suffering or emotional damage that she claims to have suffered?
Claiming that “it’s more dangerous for her to cross the street than to have sex with her teacher?”
The commonality in this case, and in the Esquith case is that LAUSD does have a number one priority: MONEY.
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Of course, if any of this were true, he’d be a danger to society and would be in jail pending investigation. I guess LAPD doesn’t feel he’s a threat because he’s, you know, not arrested,
This, by the way, seems to come straight out of Joel Klein’s playbook from a decade ago. His NYCDOE created a team of lawyers whose only job was to go after teachers. Folks here dubbed it the Gotcha Squad and their treatment of teachers was horrid. High school teacher David Pakter experienced a witchhunt that lasted several years. His case is a pretty famous example of the Gotcha Squad’s work. Among other things, the persecution of Pakter included additional accusations of sexual misconduct, shared with the press of course, once the teacher had the audacity to fight back against the district. Seems very familIar.
Lawyers like this love to go after high profile teachers because it sends that message of fear to teachers far and wide and it further brands this “bad teacher” narrative (which is very important to edreformers who seek to sew mistrust of public schools so as to increase demand for charters) to average parents who can’t always pay full attention to Ed. news. One accusation like this is worth its weight in gold to these people. This is but one reason why I hope Rafe Esquith and his lawyers eat LA school’s lunch over this.
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The following quotes (BELOW) from Esquith are part of what this all really about. After years of making such statements to the media, it was only a matter of time before LAUSD moved on Esquith.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/07/17/why-great-teachers-are-fleeing-the-profession
RAFE ESQUITH (two years ago in the WALL STREET JOURNAL):
(Jul 17, 2013)
“If the system is driving creative teachers to unparalleled levels of frustration, imagine what it’s like for young students getting up in the morning, knowing they face an endless day of rote learning. Many of them now hate school, victims of the tragedy that occurs when real learning is removed from the curriculum.
“But there is hope. Amazing teachers quietly rebel against the current trends of standardization and uniformity. The schools are filled with quiet heroes who superficially play by the rules but insert their best lessons under the radar.
“In my own situation, I will not let the latest Stalinesque five-year plan destroy 30 years of Shakespeare productions with my wonderful fifth graders; you won’t find it in the Core Curriculum, but my students write me letters for decades after they’ve left the school, telling me how important those days in our classroom were in launching them into careers in law, scientific research, education, and the arts. The best teachers will find a way to keep their provocative poetry, challenging research projects, and reading of banned books part of a curriculum that believes such activities irrelevant.
“First-rate educators have areas of expertise and a passion to share them. They have spent decades honing their craft to make lessons exciting. Good teachers get energized fighting the very System that seeks to suck the life out of learning, but imagine if the energy spent steeling their resolve was used to inspire their kids?
“Even students rarely understand what a terrific instructor can mean to a young life at the crossroads of mediocrity and excellence. But it’s possible that a fine teacher will inspire a student to grow to such heights that he will be in power one day and change the very system that threatens great teaching with extinction. Our best teachers entered the profession to help young people find the best in themselves. These heroes are needed by students now more than ever.”
————————–
Condemning the enshrined practices of “endless days of rote learning” that is driving children to “hate school.”
Ridiculing the latest “Stalinist Five-Year Plan” the school district foists on teachers and students alike.”
Attacking the “very system that seeks to suck the life out of learning.”
To LAUSD bosses, this was downright blasphemous talk, and it couldn’t be left unchallenged.
In their minds, Esquith was cruisin’ for a bruisin’… and that’s what he’s now getting.
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While reading this lawsuit again, I noticed something interesting… or perhaps not all THAT interesting. The two opposing law firms are located just a block away from each other.
Rafe’s law firm Geragos & Geragos is a 644 South Figueroa, near the NORTHEAST corner of Fig & 7th Street (the old Firehouse / Firehouse restaurant is on the ground floor of this vintage building… it’s also right next to the Metro subway junction for the Red, Purple, and Blue lines)
LAUSD’s law firm Sedgwick LLP is just 1 block south of that & katty corner across the street, at 801 South Figueroa, near the SOUTHWEST corner of Fig & 8th Street. it’s called the 801 Tower Building…
It’s not exactly an amazing coincidence or anything, as I’m relatively new here. Someone told me how that part of downtown is where most of the high-end law firms are clustered. Over the years, it’s likely that that these legal eagles have crossed paths, or even faced down each other in the criminal and civil courts of Los Angeles. Even opposing lawyers tend to be civil to each other in their professional interaction.
However, the communication in the lawsuit is anything but civil… particularly Geragos’ scathing purple prose:
Click to access Complaint-Conformed.pdf
Then again, Geragos, in the above lawsuit, did say that his firm viewed LAUSD’s conduct as “a declaration of war,” and, than later on local TV news, said that “LAUSD is a criminal cartel that needs to put out of business, and we’re going to put it out of business!”:
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/08/13/attorney-mark-geragos-calls-allegations-against-popular-teacher-smear-campaign-by-lausd/
(Also, to the movie buffs out there, the 801 Tower is featured in the 2004 thriller COLLATERAL… twice… near the beginning of the movie, cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) drops off federal prosecutor and U.S. Attorney Annie (Jada Pinkett) there… and then at the climax of the move when homicidal hit man Tom Cruise goes to kill Annie in her office—on the same floor as Sedgwick LLP? 😉 — in that same building….
Check it out…
Max runs to the roof of the 777 Wilshire parking tower next door, and frantically calls Annie, trying to warn her as he looks up at the building at 01:18:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42ZkHkTu3GY
this is followed by a chase into the aforementioned subway for the movie’s finish)
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**** UPDATE ON RAFE ESQUITH ****
From our friends at L.A. School Report,
who get it right this time…
Here’s an article about today’s protest to save Rafe, which occurred outside Hobart Elementary, his school for 32 years:
http://laschoolreport.com/students-teachers-parents-at-hobart-protest-charges-against-esquith/
Photo gallery of the protest
http://laschoolreport.com/photo-gallery-of-students-parents-teachers-protesting-rafe-esquiths-removal/
Here’s local TV news coverage of the protest:
http://abc7.com/news/students-show-support-for-rafe-esquith-amid-lausd-investigation/940482/
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Check out the Hobart Elementary website. Rafe is no longer listed as a staff member. What a disservice to the children who were supposed to have him and the Hobart Shakespeareans. But the staff member who started this whole mess is still there. How she can show her face there is beyond me.
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