Rafe Esquith has many admirers around the country. Rafe was a fifth grade teachers at the Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles. He was fired by the district based on allegations of sexual misconduct. Rafe has demanded a trial. This week, a judge heard his request for a trial and LAUSD’s request to dismiss Rafe’s request. The judge ruled that the trial may move forward.
One of Rafe’s strongest supporters is Jay Mathews of the Washington Post. This is Jay’s account of Rafe’s current situation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think Jay missed on the fear part by the LA Unified administration and/or school board. I think Rafe was fired because he dared to stand up and speak out against the autocratic corporate movement in Los Angeles funded by Eli Broad to destroy community based, democratic, transparent, non-profit public education so frauds and tyrants like Broad could profit off of our children while abusing and brainwashing them to be obedient puppets and consumers. Firing Rafe was an attempt to silence his voice and destroy his reputation.
Exactly Lloyd. And add to this that there was a great deal of jealousy by some others who helped to bring him down. Rafe had visiting teachers observing in his classroom (a daily occurence) as he spoke with his students and quoted Mark Twain re nudity. He would never have brought down the wrath of the district with his words, with so many witnesses, had he been guilty of these manufactured charges.
The point he was making was that the district had denied any monetary help to buy the Hobart Shakespearians costumes. So, he joked that like Twain’s story (which his students read and comprehended), they might have to act “nude.” The seemingly deranged reporting teacher ran to tell the principal who REALLY did not want to report this nonsense to the district but was under mandate to do so. The principal who had known Rafe for many years, had great respect for him and had the ability and the duty to view his classroom demeanor often. Also the many parents of his many students of over thirty years of teaching, were unanimous in their respect and affection for Esquith.
It is well known that LAUSD stops at nothing to defame those they want gone. In this case, they took out-of-context words from emails and built a case to rid them of a pest who would not do their bidding.
Please be sure to read Geronimo’s report today on how this deadly group of non-intellectuals who run LAUSD truly function. These know-nothings, often with degrees from online schools, swim in the muck of nepotism at Beaudry, and are dazzled by Broad’s cash and power. And this has been the way of it for many decades at LAUSD.
Lloyd, you summarized it very well. And remember that there are hundreds of veteran teachers in lausd and all over the USA that have been threatened, terrorized, humiliated, falsely accused because they make too much money. The 1% want the taxpayers’ money used for education to flow like rivers of water to their bank accounts.
I wish he would stick up for the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of good teachers nationwide that are being subjected to the same kind of guilty until proven innocent shenanigans. There are MANY out there that are just as egregious, if not more egregious, than Mr. Esquith’s case.