A reader says the emails cited here are “nauseating.” Were they grounds to fire Rafe Esquith, one of the most celebrated teachers in the nation? What do you think?

Categories Education Reform

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LeftCoastTeacher says:

December 8, 2015 at 11:40 pm

Still waiting for the defense… but yes, that’s pretty damning evidence from the Tiger Team. I hope that doesn’t embolden a return to the Deasy days from the Board.

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- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 1:06 am
  
  Isn’t it interesting that the Broad LA Times comes out with this just as the LAUSD BoE is deciding on a new Supt????
  
  I have NO faith in this Broad directed news source, nor the BoE and LAUSD honchos who have reapeatedly fallen for Broad directives.
  
  I will believe it when I see real proof…not more innuendo.
  
  Call me naive.
  
  Reply
Cheryl says:

December 8, 2015 at 11:49 pm

I’m not sure. Snippets of emails released? Is it legal to use something from the 1970’s – 20 years before he became a teacher? It sure seems fishy. We need to hear from the defense side, for sure.

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- Knowthefactsfirst says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 2:38 am
  
  Many of the emails are recent and completely inappropriate.
  
  Reply
- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 8:28 am
  
  How do you know that, KnowFacts??? Did you read the actual emails? Or do you, once again, jump to conclusions to protect LAUSD?
  
  Reply
- mykeyd1 says:
  
  December 11, 2015 at 3:56 pm
  
  Notice the deafening silence from the teachers unions. Perhaps all teachers will have to confess what they might have done forty years ago. This will disqualify almost all baby boomers. Problem solved!!! No more ‘expensive’ teachers with their ‘expensive’ benefits and ‘expensive’ pensions.
  
  Reply
sallyo57 says:

December 9, 2015 at 12:15 am

Assuming this is all true, yes.

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m4potw says:

December 9, 2015 at 12:20 am

OMG! Is this how LAUSD punishes educator who has dedicated his excellent devotion in teaching career?

All people who are behind this make-up nightmare would get back the worst with interest for their own careers and health plus their loved ones’ careers. Back2basic

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M. Odems says:

December 9, 2015 at 12:29 am

I don’t believe one lie for a second.

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2old2teach says:

December 9, 2015 at 12:44 am

Too soon. And the LAUSD has lost credibility.

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- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 1:10 am
  
  Wonder what happened to the Cortines lawsuit with 14 obscen charges by the sexually harassed plaintiff, and then his retaliatory firing? All the LA Times and the LASR is how wonderful Cortines is and how much he will be missed.
  
  Good luck students and parents, when they appoint the next Broad chosen Supt.
  
  Reply
- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 1:11 am
  
  obscene…that is.
  
  Reply
- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 1:16 am
  
  These Broad controlled media sources report only what supports their position, and they have long distorted facts that are not their perspective. Nothing new about this kind of continued smear.
  
  Wonder if the FBI and SEC have the goods on Deasy…so this is today’s distraction??? Bet when that news comes out, it will be a small paragraph next to the obits, if they even decide to publish it..
  
  Yes, 2old2teach…they all have zero credibility.
  
  Reply
- KrazyTA says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 3:53 am
  
  2old2teach: as I see it, we are at the beginning of what should be a long process and should not rush to judgment. Rafe Esquith is innocent until proven guilty—with actual verifiable facts. I am keeping an open mind on this. However…
  
  As for the LAUSD board and the LATIMES: considering not just their passive acceptance of, but active participation in, wasting almost a quarter of a billion dollars re such predictable and obvious fiascos as iPads and MISIS alone, I think relying on their good judgment in handling this matter begs the question—
  
  Do they have any good judgment at all?
  
  Again, I await more substantive info.
  
  🙄
  
  Reply
Arteducator2000 says:

December 9, 2015 at 1:38 am

The timing, the source, the witnesses, the “journalist”- it all stinks to high heaven. Like everything in this dusty, corrupt cow town, one must cut through the dazzle camoflague to see the truth.

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Paula says:

December 9, 2015 at 2:01 am

If there were grounds to fire Esquith and thousands of other teachers in teacher jail, we would never know. The whole illegal process of guilty without having an opportunity to clear themselves is what LAUSD did and does to teachers in teacher jail. The suspension of your due process and false accusations is all part of the plan to get rid of older, veteran teachers and out spoken, whistleblowers. What LAUSD did and does to these teachers is vile and the district must be held accountable.

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- Knowthefactsfirst says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 2:35 am
  
  If there is credible information a teacher did something inappropriate the school has to fire or buy them out. If not, any future victim can sue and say “but you knew” from previous allegations. District really has no choice but to fire if there is credible info.
  
  Reply
Knowthefactsfirst says:

December 9, 2015 at 2:32 am

The evidence against him is damning. More than enough to fire him. Do you want a teacher saying he will “spank” you if you go to school? His joking tone is really about flirting and fishing for a reaction from students. Seeing those who will bite then he can groom. Typical pattern of an abuser. He can than claim he was just joking if someone calls him out on it. Many witnesses come forward to tell he talks about sex a lot in his class.

Just his emails alone is enough to fire him.

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Dienne says:

December 9, 2015 at 2:52 am

Assuming these emails aren’t the equivalent of planting a gun on a dead “suspect”, then, yes, it’s looking bad. However, LAUSD isn’t looking any better. They sat on the complaint for 10 years and apparently didn’t care until Esquith became a thorn in their side. If these allegations are substantiated, any who were victimized in the last 10 years have a good case against LAUSD.

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- Dienne says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 2:59 am
  
  Incidentally, Esquith’s lawyer is probably really cranky with him right about now.
  
  Reply
Wendy Johnson says:

December 9, 2015 at 7:23 am

Based on their past record, I don’t think L.A. Times is a credible source on this issue. Also, if there were all this damning evidence from recent years, why did LAUSD have to go on such a long fishing expedition? I am skeptical, very skeptical, and will reserve judgment.

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Ellen Lubic says:

December 9, 2015 at 7:37 am

It is remarkable to me that people are willing to believe conjecture, words leaked to a reporter to publish in a newspaper known to have a huge bias to charter schools and against LAUSD public schools, and all this “alleged” behavior from 10 – thirty years ago, without knowing how much is real and how much is a set up to deflect the public from Eli Broad’s new onslaught to charterize most of LAUSD.

The search for a new Supt. is ‘alleged’ to have turned up some of the slimiest privatizer candidates, but this seems not to worry some, and the new billionaire funded and instigated Great Schools Now 501(c)(3) (which had to start getting their status papers from the State many months ago) and is admittedly designed to use Broad’s 50% takeover plan without using his name, does NOT smell fishy to folks???

And so many of the recent LA Times articles quoting only charterizers like the CCSA woman who now heads the Gulen Magnolia Schools which just got the BoE to add three more, so the Turkish Imam, Fetullah Gulen now runs 11 charter schools in LA County.

C’mon.

Eli Broad and his coterie of the richest people in the world, play hardball, and Eli says “I always win”……..so…..

How convenient that the most well known teacher in the US now suddenly is reported by Eli’s news folks as a ‘perve’ and the prime news, when all this damning billionaire behavior, and the proven behavior of the current Supt. disappears into the ether of readers who do not remember history for more than a nanosecond and have so little coherence of how these oligarchs use all means available to impose their will on all of us. Even as to not letting Diane Ravitch speak at their meetings, but only opening the door for Michelle Rhee as was done two years ago by Broad and LAWAC. Read past reports in the archives here.

If the various elected Boards of Education and LAUSD administrators have kept this all hidden for decades, they are all co-conspirators and accessories to any activities that Rafe may, or may not, have done.

These charges are too contrived and these reports are too timed for it all to be just a coincidence.

And lo and behold, here is KnowtheFacts who is probably a shill for the district and/or Broad, back in our midst trying to control this conversation.

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- Raj says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 10:51 am
  
  Ellen Lubic,
  
  Here is a quote from the LA Times article.
  
  “Records released this week by L.A. Unified to the Los Angeles Times under the California Public Records Act allege “immoral” and “egregious” misconduct by the educator who taught at the school for more than 30 years. The documents also charge that Esquith had acted dishonestly, was unfit for service and persistently violated or refused to obey district rules.”
  
  Read the quote above once more. Read the whole article once again. These are not words leaked to a reporter. Information was released by the LAUSD per the California Records Act.
  
  Stop making up facts and pay due respect to journalism.
  Besides if you do not agree with a comment here the person is not a shill. I believe that Diane Ravitch will agree with me on this.
  
  Reply
- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 1:39 pm
  
  As I say repeatedly Raj…the LA Times prints what Eli Broad wants it to print. I read this article and no where are there actual person to person emails both quoted and identified and printed. Snippets were chosen by the author, Torres, to use to excite the imagination and anger of the generally malleable readers…like some few here.
  
  This was published today to deflect from the other far more serious issues at LAUSD…like who they will choose as Supt. All the commendations the Times publishes about Cortines does not alter the fact that he appointed Thelma Melendez as his second in command. She is a Broad Academy grad and a prime supporter of charter schools, a close tie to Eli, and on the short list to be chosen Supt.
  
  Esquith would have been a blip on the radar and would have been no news if he had not hired Geragos to press a class action lawsuit against the district, and if over 1,000 teachers had not joined that class. His case is being used by the district to distract the public from all the rest of their shenanigans….led by Eli Broad and his thug associates.
  
  Reply
- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 1:45 pm
  
  And also Raj…there are often shills, Diane calls them trolls, planted here and at other sites, to direct conversation away from the operant issues. Political candidates use them, and huge sophisticated businesses like LAUSD also use these planted commentators. It is incumbent upon those who are public policy specialists to point this out.
  
  Reply
- 2old2teach says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 10:14 pm
  
  Most of us rely on you and other CA writers to keep us informed and remind us of what you are living. Since I am from the Chicago area, I am much more tuned to the local Chicago news. I depend on other voices for the story in Ohio or Florida or Louisiana. I trust your voice much more than I would LAUSD or the LA times, but it your voice among others that have helped to shape that opinion. Be gentle.
  
  Reply
- Ken Watanabe says:
  
  December 10, 2015 at 12:19 am
  
  >Stop making up facts and pay due respect to journalism.
  
  Easy for someone who is totally ignorant about quality of “journalism”–which has been eroded in the last decades due to obscene corporate intervention.
  
  Reply
- Art Educator 2000 says:
  
  December 10, 2015 at 2:15 am
  
  Thank you once again, Ellen.
  I agree that this is all a distraction. And I too have had my eye on that Broadie Melendez for a while now. Hope will be lost for this town if she or someone of her ilk is charged with the education of the children of Los Angeles,
  I have no idea what has gone on with Esquith and his former students. But like you and many other have wondered, if there was something dangerous happening, why did it take so long to investigate?
  As always, there is more to this story than we may ever know. I will be watching. And I am heartened that I will not be the only one doing so.
  
  Reply
MathVale says:

December 9, 2015 at 7:52 am

I know those falsely accused by a vindictive student and her friends and unstable parent. Some of the “evidence” was fabricated. Some a perversion of events (chaperoning was said to be stalking). It got worse as the students would plan their actions. The police are always biased towards the accuser as part of their job (they never investigate if an accusation is NOT true). And the force of government against the accused is immense. And there are plenty who stand by and do nothing.

Let due process work.

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- Paula says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 2:33 pm
  
  That’s the problem, due process of teachers like Esquith have been trampled on and ignored. How many of these accusers c
  Would come out smelling like a rose if every action they took over the course of their entire career was scrutinized and subjected to negative inuendo. I don’t support this total defamation of this teacher’s character based on hear say and negative inuendo. This is what the district has been doing to teachers since Cortines first came and went into overdrive when Dz, the deformers became super. Getting rid of older, veteran teacher, teachers who were whistleblowers or activist. Esquith pissed some idiot in administration off and questioned the wast things were done and they went after him. Was he guilty? Yes, of being a teacher who cared. That will get you fired everytime in LAUSD.
  
  Reply
Tim says:

December 9, 2015 at 8:45 am

I’m still nauseated.

As I said in my original comment, yes, by all means, Mr. Esquith should be given the chance to prove that he didn’t write the emails. Maybe his dog did it, maybe it was Russian hackers, maybe it was his allergies acting up, etc, etc, etc.

But assuming that none of those things are true and he did write the emails, then what else do you need to conclude that he isn’t fit to be in the presence of children? What circumstances or context could possibly explain away this correspondence?

At the very best, they display a colossal, abysmally bad lack of judgment. At the worst, well, let’s pray that the worst didn’t happen. The case should be handed over to the district attorney in any event.

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- NYC public school parent says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 10:03 am
  
  I know exactly how you feel. I feel nauseated when I read things like this, many documented in e-mails:
  
  “In an internal email that some former teachers said typified the attitude at some schools, one school leader said that students who were lagging should be made to feel “misery.”
  
  “Last year, for instance, the principal of Success Academy Harlem 2 Upper, Lavinia Mackall, told teachers not to automatically send annual re-enrollment forms home to certain students, because the school did not want those students to come back…”
  
  “It was a member of that team who described a student’s withdrawal from the Success Academy in Union Square to colleagues as a “big win…”
  
  “Ms. Fleischman, the education manager, warned her colleagues in a follow-up email that the goal should not have been put in an email and that, in any case, a 12:1:1 classification “does not guarantee a withdrawal…”
  
  “At Success Academy Fort Greene, the same day that Ms. Ogundiran heard from the principal, her daughter’s name was one of 16 placed on a list drawn up at his direction and shared by school leaders.
  The heading on the list was “Got to Go.”
  
  “They could have let me know he was on a list that he ‘had to go.’ And I would have asked them why, because he’s not a bad child. He just talks too much sometimes. “He doesn’t hit kids, he doesn’t knock kids over, he doesn’t scream, he just talks too much. So I don’t understand why he’s on this list.”
  
  At the very best, they display a colossal, abysmally bad lack of judgment. At the worst, well, let’s pray that the worst didn’t happen.
  
  I mean, you are nauseated by the e-mails found after investigators spent months combing through records. I think you probably agree with me that we need investigators combing through the e-mails and records of other educators as well, given how nauseating all the above e-mails are. Obviously, they must be the tip of the iceberg since they aren’t even the results of the kind of investigation you support.
  
  Reply
- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 1:59 pm
  
  Tim…as an educated man who lives with the rest of us as a citizen under the American judicial system, do you not agree that to pillary and convict a teacher who has had a lifetime exemplary career and reputation, based on a newspaper article in a paper proven to be directed by those who seek to do away with public schools, with information given by the district which fired him, to be fair?
  
  Here we have the powerful defendant in a lawsuit getting the media to publish only their side with the goal of blemishing the plaintiff and tainting jury selection. The actual facts will only be opened in a court of law. The rest is manufactured innuendo…gossip.
  
  I used the term ‘leaked’ above…but it was the lawyers at the district who released what they wanted the LA Times to print, to denigrate Esquith before any trial. Is that what American jurisprudence calls for?
  Are teachers now to be judged guilty, and have to prove their innocence? I learned in public school that one is considered innocent until PROVEN guilty in a court of law. Isn’t this what you learned?
  
  Reply
  - Tim says:
    
    December 9, 2015 at 3:41 pm
    
    Here is a new WaPo (BEZOS!!) article with some additional nauseating details: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/09/how-is-my-favorite-hottie-documents-allege-years-of-sexual-misconduct-by-famous-l-a-teacher/
    
    Ellen, I am working under the impression that like the UFT, the UTLA contract has a lower bar than “beyond a reasonable doubt” with respect to conduct toward students. And again I’ll ask: assuming that his computer wasn’t hacked or the emails planted, and that he waived his right to privacy by using a district computer, under what possible circumstances would the remarks that he wrote be acceptable and appropriate to use with young teenage children?
    
    The fact that it appears that Esquith engaged in wildly inappropriate behavior with young doesn’t mean that he and other veteran teachers weren’t targeted by LAUSD, or that the LA Times’s coverage isn’t slanted, for whatever that’s worth.
  - 2old2teach says:
    
    December 9, 2015 at 11:32 pm
    
    Did you bother to read the lawyers’ response?
- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 4:09 pm
  
  Tim…although I can understand your stance, I have gotten so many emails from teachers like Paula who comments here, and Rene Deidrich who also has written here for years, and all with similar reports of how LAUSD gets rid of teachers. There are too many of these reports to discount them. All describe contrived sexual allegations without proof…and off to jail they go.
  
  I now look askance at these district allegations and want proof in a court of law before I jump in and denigrate these accused teachers. It was incumbent on LAUSD many decades ago to follow up on Rafe if there was any serious charge. They chose not to address anything they now say came up years ago. If he is indeed guilty of ongoing crimes against students, they, the district and the BoE, are now accessories before and after the fact.
  
  Please remember the McMartin case and how many innocent lives were ruined with false testimony due to the lurid media reports.
  
  We shall see.
  
  Reply
Justin says:

December 9, 2015 at 9:03 am

If this is true, then one thing is obvious- he should have had the hindsight to not call the lynch mob on himself.

I’m not saying that to be mean. I’ve been that guy to call attention to myself before, and they (district) do their best to find the worst of you to come out with- however, the fact that it’s something as document-able as email is pretty damning… that’s hard evidence and not testimony from a coached witness or hearsay

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- Justin says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 9:11 am
  
  I just wanted to expand and say that while we do not know the full context of these emails, there are some things that a teacher must never say or leave open to interpretation. There are ways to build the confidence of students and forge meaningful relationships, but professional lines need to be maintained at all times.
  
  This is disappointing. Hopefully, it doesn’t take away steam from the fight of all teachers in LAUSD
  
  Reply
- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 6:54 pm
  
  Are you Justin from the Valley who went through your own hell???
  
  Reply
NYC public school parent says:

December 9, 2015 at 9:42 am

Aside from the accusation from the 1970s, which seems pretty suspect, I find it odd that if you read the article carefully, the only e-mails that are inappropriate are all to a single student. Why is there no mention of the investigators interviewing that student in the report? That’s the obvious step an investigator would take. If there was anything untoward in that relationship with a minor, there would be a legal obligation so there is no excuse for not following up. I find that odd, as if they want to leave a lot of innuendo to smear a teacher instead of the job to find out if a child was harmed. What kind of biased investigation does that? Or was the student and her family’s interview purposely left out of the investigator’s report because it was exculpatory?

The other e-mails seem to be from a teacher offering financial support to kids!. A teacher who obviously crossed the line offering money and yet seemingly because these kids were quite poor. Again, why no information about those students’ responses in this report?

I would have more trust in an investigation that pursued this supposed ‘evidence’ that they found. If you see damning evidence that implies an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor, you darn well investigate it to the ground. At the very least you talk to the students or their parents. You don’t just stop and say “we’ve done our job” to “get” the teacher. Either this investigation is trying to protect other people and that’s why they aren’t pursuing the obvious, or they don’t want to include any evidence that is exculpatory. I wish this “evidence” didn’t smell of trying NOT to do the full investigation that any authority who had real concern about this teacher would do. Why isn’t it?

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- FLERP! says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 9:53 am
  
  What investigator’s report?
  
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- NYC public school parent says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 10:19 am
  
  ^^Correction – there seems to be two students over the last 15 years with whom he exchanged e-mails with inappropriate conduct. Did the investigator even attempt to contact them? “Esquith has not been charged with a crime,” according to the story, but that seems to be because they didn’t even try to contact the alleged victims. Or perhaps they did contact them and leave that out of their report. I don’t understand why you would spend money to do a halfway investigation and not pursue the evidence where it leads.
  
  Reply
- NYC public school parent says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 10:54 am
  
  “Records released this week by L.A. Unified to the Los Angeles Times under the California Public Records Act allege “immoral” and “egregious” misconduct by the educator who taught at the school for more than 30 years. The documents also charge that Esquith had acted dishonestly, was unfit for service and persistently violated or refused to obey district rules.”
  
  Those records. There is a reference in the article to one student “from the 1990s” being interviewed. The investigation interviewed one student from 20 years ago and there is no mention of what the students who were the recipients of the much more recent e-mails said. Nor what any student in the past 20 years said. It’s very odd. It appears that the investigation did not try very hard to find out if any real abuse happened which is inexcusable. Or the investigation did try extremely hard to find out if abuse happened and the only student they could find was from 20 years ago. In either case, it seems like a cover-up and not a report that someone who actually wanted to make sure kids weren’t harmed would do.
  
  Reply
  - FLERP! says:
    
    December 9, 2015 at 11:08 am
    
    Ah, I see. It may be that the Times intends to dole this stuff out piecemeal. Or the story may be badly written. Or the records released by LAUSD don’t include a summary report that includes all details of the investigation.
    
    I hate it when newspapers obtain public records by FOIL requests and don’t post the documents online. I understand they have a business to run, but it annoys me to no end.
Elizabeth K. Burton says:

December 9, 2015 at 12:04 pm

How convenient that one of the more intelligent human beings on the planet was stupid enough to leave this kind of damning evidence on his WORK computer. Which machine anyone with the right keys and a way to steal his password can access.

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- Cecelia says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 12:30 pm
  
  It would be interesting to know if the emails were sent on days and hours he was in the classroom. Does he share his computer with another teacher or does sub or admin or parent have access? Do students know the passwords for his email? Is it a laptop that he takes elsewhere and others may have accessed? If he did send such commentary then he should be held accountable for his words. But if someone else accessed the email accounts that should be considered. This needs to go to court and those involved need to testify and the opportunity for defense be made available. A newspaper article is not sufficient evidence to make a judgement. The information seems a bit sketchy but perhaps there is more substantial proof. Maybe not. Could be a set up. Could be reality. I am in no position to judge whether he should be fired. And that has already occurred. I do agree with your point that it just seems a bit too convenient and odd that someone who knows they are being watched and not supported by admin would be so brazen as to engage with such actions on the device that he is most likely to be scrutinized. The entries seem very juvenile, not the kind of conversation typical of an adult with a child. This warrants professional investigation and my speculation doesn’t really amount to a hill of beans. I have a couple of his books and he describes in great detail that he made mistakes and learned from them. He may have erred in his own actions or he may be a victim of someone else’s error.
  
  Reply
- Dienne says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 12:45 pm
  
  I don’t know what to think of the Rafe Esquith case specifically – I’ll wait until we have more information. But I just want to say generally that “intelligence” is not equivalent to “common sense”. Many of the “best and brightest” have been brought down by doing stupid, obvious things they were too arrogant to think they’d ever be caught for.
  
  Reply
- Paula says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 2:52 pm
  
  As a fired teacher and former occupant of teacher jail, let me confirm that LAUSD lies and plants evident against teachers. Using the same jargon on most accused teacher in jail, they all are guilty of misconduct, many guilty of sexual misconduct as defined by the district, not law enforcement. They all are guilty of not following the rules and procedures of the district and they are all incompetent even though they have taught 20-30-40 years with no negative evaluations. It’s a joke because there is no differentiation between teachers when they are falsely accused like this. We’re all guilty because the district says we are and when they decide( usually after they fire us) we can prove our innocence. Is this the criminal justice system in America or something special just for LAUSD?
  
  Reply
- daveeckstrom says:
  
  December 9, 2015 at 4:26 pm
  
  I don’t know if this is the case at LAUSD and have no idea if it was done to Esquith, but I know that in my district administrators can make emails disappear if they want to (it’s happened to me–fortunately I had the good sense to print hard copies and have witnesses sign them). If they can make emails disappear, it stands to reason that they can also make them appear.
  
  Having said that, if Esquith can be shown to have been responsible for these emails, he has no business being around kids.
  
  Reply
  - 2old2teach says:
    
    December 9, 2015 at 11:39 pm
    
    Please read the lawyers response. Rafe Esquith never used a district computer. therefore the source of these emails becomes very important.
FLERP! says:

December 9, 2015 at 12:43 pm

If Esquith did not write these emails, Mr. Geragos will absolutely make that crystal clear very soon in a widely disseminated statement.

Reply
Michael Fiorillo says:

December 9, 2015 at 3:26 pm

The emails, if written by Esquith as presented (an “if” that should be kept in the forefront of everyone’s mind), appear quite creepy and inappropriate, but, given the varied forms of child abuse accepted and encouraged under the ed reform regime, I think the key phrase here is “…prersistently violated and refused to obey District rules.”

That’s the Tell.

As the Kevin Johnson situation shows, all kinds of gross and abusive behavior is tolerated among a favored few, but for a public school teacher to persistently violate and ignore rules is beyond the pale.

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FLERP! says:

December 9, 2015 at 9:55 pm

Mark Geragos has released Esquith’s statement. Among other things, it says that the released emails were not “in context.” It does not say that Esquith didn’t write the emails. So you can rest 100% assured that he wrote them.

Here’s the statement. Ellen may enjoy it, as it includes a plea for mass public information requests relating to sexual misconduct allegations against Cortines.

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- Ellen Lubic says:
  
  December 10, 2015 at 3:12 am
  
  Hey Flerp…not thrilled with your snide comment. I praise and encourage Geragos and his firm for being aggressive and very smart advocates for their clients..
  
  I just try to inform about the vast double standard of the LAUSD Supt. Cortines own personal admitted sexual behavior, and quite bland and unproven actions, comparatively, of Esquith and other teachers who were similarly attacked and jailed, then fired, or quit, or died, or committed suicide. Insiders say that it was Cortines who first introduced teacher jail in the early 2000s, just about the time he created a job for the man he was grooming to be his lover. What goes around, comes around.
  
  If you want to learn about the 14 charges in the filed lawsuit against Cortines, just google it….it is all online. And now the plaintiff added the additional charge of retaliatory firing. If you were a local parent and taxpayer maybe you too would find all this disgusting.
  
  Reply
  - FLERP! says:
    
    December 10, 2015 at 3:41 am
    
    Didn’t intend to sound snide.
- Ken Watanabe says:
  
  December 11, 2015 at 9:42 am
  
  >It does not say that Esquith didn’t write the emails. So you can rest 100% assured that he wrote them.
  
  Well, then, you’d do something better than this kind of straw-man typical right-wing columnist loves to write in a low-brow magazine.
  
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Arts Smart says:

December 9, 2015 at 11:28 pm

I think the most serious allegations are the sexual jokes that were reported by other teachers. Completely inappropriate for K-5, but does it warrant his dismissal? The rest of the accusations I take with a big grain of salt. My favorite high school teacher made a lot of sexual jokes, but never had any sexual relationships with his students. Nowadays he would probably be fired. This is why when a student tries to give me a hug I step back and say “don’t hug please, just smile and say hello.”

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- Paula says:
  
  December 10, 2015 at 12:34 am
  
  If Esquith never had a. District email, how did they get this information. His attorney is correct in regards to public records requests, the district will not honor this law. They only. Give you what they want. LAUSD is corrupt and so are the administrators who work for it. Esquith, you have thousands of colleagues who can testify to the illegalities of LAUSD. You are not alone.
  
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Mike says:

December 10, 2015 at 12:20 am

The allegations are quite serious, if true. (Not only e-mails.)

However, if true, if there were complaints about RE in the 70’s, 90’s, etc.–one has to wonder——Why were these not brought to light until now?

What does that say about the district? Why did they allow him to teach for more than 30 years???? That is negligence on the part of the district, if the stories are true.

It all seems rather suspicious.

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m4potw says:

December 10, 2015 at 1:35 am

To Dienne:

Media is owned by corrupted corporate who can buy “”many”” intelligent, but WEAK/vile investigators and board of education members in order to manipulate and exaggerate their make-up believed evidence/stories; or intentionally hide/ kill the true evidences. This is to confuse the public or arouse public like crooked politicians’ strategies.

Yes, it is very or extremely difficult for commoners who can comprehend/distinguish the manipulation from “”controlling”” corrupted, but very “”cunning”” corporate from the VERY TRUE REALITY IN TEACHING DEDICATION, like Teacher Rafe Esquith with his supported spouse who make orange juice and breakfast for poor children.

Honestly, I would have NO DOUBT, even the slightest doubt about all teachers who are like teacher Rafe Esquith who dedicates his own precious time, money and his spouse’s extra help in order to alleviate his students’ sufferance so that these poor but intelligent with good soul can believe in their talent and their bright future career.

In the same vein, I hope that for the future reference, all bloggers will unite without any doubt in support Dr.Ravitch’s through thick and thin to preserve Public Education = democracy at any cost.

LAUSD can fire teacher Rafe Esquith, and Lawyer Geragos can fail his mission, BUT the spirit of teacher Rafe Esquith will always shine through the sufferance and loss in health, career and property in all people who directly and indirectly, intentionally and accidentally harass teacher Rafe Esquith and all other veteran teachers in LAUSD in the past many decades.

In short, educators, and Dienne who are confused by corrupted media, please remember two important keys:

1) Rafe Esquith never used a district computer.

2) Rafe is persistently violated or refused to obey district rules in the eyes of Eli Broad because Rafe is famous for his own musical play which corrupted corporate wants to eliminate. May

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- Sahila says:
  
  December 11, 2015 at 11:14 pm
  
  and you need to get your facts straight; according to the information received under the FOI request, the emails were sent from Esquith’s DISTRICT computer….. and as someone else pointed out, when you use your boss’s computer as your work tool, you give up any right to privacy with regards to what you send and receive via that computer
  
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Brett Gilland says:

December 10, 2015 at 10:53 am

As is mentioned above, my general response to most of this is wait and see. However, the fact that LAUS (and the newspaper) both imply that esquith is engaging in problematic behavior because he is giving money to ex-students, in one case paying for a student’s tuition to a private school, really tells you more about the investigators than Esquith. It certainly makes me far more likely to distrust the rest of the alleged impropriety they trot out.

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- Sahila says:
  
  December 11, 2015 at 2:49 am
  
  not sure why you dont think giving money to ex students is inappropriate behaviour; it breaks the teacher-student professional boundaries rules… at the very least, it smacks of favouritism, singling out some to help ahead of others… at the worst, what are the students giving him in return for the money? AND it leaves teachers open to suspicions/accusations just like the ones being levelled at this teacher now, here and in the wider press…
  
  bad all around…
  
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m4potw says:

December 11, 2015 at 3:22 am

To Sahila:

Your mindset is one of those people who are selfish and materialized.

Giving with expecting of return is very bad attitude. Teaching profession is the most profound selfless profession.

It is sad that all business people have the same thought like yours. As a result, we suffer the chaos in society. Back2basic

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- Candyce Watsey says:
  
  December 11, 2015 at 10:58 am
  
  m4potw:
  
  So well stated.
  
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- Sahila says:
  
  December 11, 2015 at 11:11 pm
  
  if you’re trying to discredit me or anything i post here, you will have to put in more effort – try harder!
  
  you left the same comment addressed to me on the other Rafe Esquith thread…. very unoriginal! decidedly lacking in creativity, passion and conviction! not to mention grit, rigour, vigour, determination, persistence, perseverance and general all round commitment and conscientiousness!
  
  i wont be equally lazy by copying/pasting/posting here my response from there….
  
  take care…
  
  Reply