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Betsy Combier
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
President, ADVOCATZ
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| Rafe Esquith |
Teacher Rafe Esquith's misconduct investigation is a high-profile test for LAUSD's 'tiger team'
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When a
colleague complained that Rafe Esquith, the most celebrated teacher in Los
Angeles, had made a joke about nudity to his fifth-grade students, the district
called into action a newly formed squad of investigators to get to the bottom
of it.
Internally dubbed the
"tiger team," the unit was created last year in the wake of repeated
sex abuse scandals that had long plagued the nation's second-largest school
district. These investigators were supposed to cut through the bureaucracy's red
tape and investigative backlog and quickly ferret out wrongdoing.
In Esquith, they had
their highest-profile subject and their biggest test.
This week, based on the
unit's investigative efforts, the school board behind closed doors voted unanimously to fire Esquith.
On Thursday, Esquith
attorney Mark Geragos criticized the inquiry into his client and slammed the
unit as "an investigative hit squad" that was determined to find
wrongdoing by probing, if necessary, into every aspect of an employee's life.
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| Mark Geragos |
The team includes seven
full-time investigators, a supervisor and two forensic specialists. Among them
are former L.A. Police Department detectives and a former investigator with the
L.A. County Sheriff's Department. Three former administrators review their
work, and the unit is headed by Jose Cantu, who's been with the district for
more than 30 years, including 14 as a principal.
Also participating in the
Esquith investigation is an outside law firm, a practice the district has
reserved for especially sensitive cases.
Esquith qualified for
special handling because he is one of the most famous and honored teachers in
America, the subject of articles, a documentary and White House accolades. He's
renowned for coaxing stirring performances of Shakespeare from Latino and Asian
students who live in the working-class neighborhood around Hobart Avenue Elementary
School.
In denouncing the unit,
Esquith's attorneys pointed to how the investigation started: with a review of
a joke about nudity that Esquith made to his fifth-graders in March. Several
weeks later, officials pulled Esquith from his classroom, and he never
returned.
The evidence gathered in
the case is confidential, but district officials outlined allegations in an
August letter to Esquith's attorneys. According to the letter, investigators
were looking into accusations that Esquith improperly touched minors before and
during his decades- long teaching career, that his school computer contained
images and video "of a sexual nature," that he exchanged
inappropriate emails with students, that he threatened a parent and two
students, and that he mishandled a nonprofit through which he funded field
trips and other benefits for students.
Esquith's attorneys said
they were astounded at how a routine review of a harmless joke ballooned into a
sweeping inquiry.
The district has
acknowledged that the unit, formally called the Student Safety Investigation
Team, decided to examine the nonprofit without specific complaints against it.
Officials also insisted that serious allegations emerged that could not be
ignored, and that Esquith was not removed from class because of the joke.
Esquith's attorneys
already are pursuing litigation to reinstate the acclaimed teacher, but on
Thursday they upped the ante. They filed a class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles
Superior Court on behalf of Esquith and other teachers, alleging violation of
due process, age discrimination, whistleblower retaliation and wrongful
discharge.
Esquith's experience,
they contend, is indicative of a larger problem: District officials target
higher-paid, older teachers to strip them of retirement benefits.
"The vast majority
of investigations are based not on student or parent complaints, but rather
upon vague allegations by LAUSD administrators which eventually widen to
encompass a complete audit of a teacher's life and every association,
affiliation, and relationship the teacher has ever had his or her entire
life," according to the complaint. "Teachers with unblemished and
impeccable records … fear for their lives and reputations."
In the process, students
are being mistreated as well, Geragos said at a Thursday news conference. The
unit "basically intimidates and tries to extract statements from students
that they then use for kangaroo-court-style proceedings in order to get people
to resign," he said.
District officials
rejected that characterization, saying in a statement that "investigations
are conducted in a sensitive manner."
The investigative unit
grew out of the 2012 arrest of Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt, which
led to a flurry of allegations and several prosecutions. At one point, more
than 320 instructors were in limbo after they'd been pulled from classrooms.
The district has since
paid about $200 million in settlements, judgments and legal fees related to
Miramonte and other cases — and took a public-relations beating.
Attorney Brian Claypool,
who represented 18 families in the Miramonte case, said the investigative
team's work is proof that the district learned from the sexual abuse scandal.
"Our goal from Day
One was to make fundamental change to eliminate this systemic failure that
they've had for decades, and we're now seeing a real heartfelt attempt to cure
this problem and to finally put the kids first," Claypool said.
Then-Supt. John Deasy
adopted a zero-tolerance approach that won praise for putting student safety
above all other considerations. But critics said some teachers were fired or
over-punished for relatively minor or unproven infractions.
Esquith is just the
latest victim, said Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews, who has chronicled
Esquith's classroom success.
The district "has
let itself be swallowed up in a witch hunt, with a school board too frightened
by the very mention of molestation to stand up for a great teacher,"
Mathews said. "L.A. schools were making steady improvement, but what energetic
and imaginative teachers are going to want to work in a system that has decided
to sic attack-dog lawyers on anyone who says something that might seem even
mildly offensive?"
The
head of the teachers union, however, said the handling of cases has improved
under the current superintendent. "In Ramon Cortines we have found a
willing partner to address that overreach on the part of Deasy," said Alex
Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
He put the current number
of suspended teachers at around 100.
He added that provisions
in the new teachers contract provide additional safeguards, but that the union
remains concerned about whether the district is abiding by these commitments in
all situations.
He declined to comment on
Esquith's case.
"We've reached out
and been in contact with Mr. Esquith," Caputo-Pearl said. "He opted
to hire his own private attorney, which is his right. We support his ongoing
efforts to have his due process respected."
Times
staff writer Sonali Kohli contributed to this report.
ESQUITH'S ATTORNEY TURNS DOWN LAUSD 'KANGAROO COURT' HEARING
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ESQUITH'S ATTORNEY TURNS DOWN LAUSD 'KANGAROO COURT' HEARING
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| Esquith Attorney Ben Meiselas |
In another testy exchange with LA Unified, a lawyer for teacher Rafe Esquith said district investigators are asking “loaded questions” of past and present students about the conduct of the teacher.
The district called for a hearing this month with Esquith, who is still on payroll while in “teacher jail,” but the attorney turned down the request, calling such a hearing a “kangaroo court.”
In a letter of response sent yesterday, Esquith’s lawyer, Ben Meiselas, said he was declining the request because it said district investigators would be discussing “your inappropriate conduct.”
“The hearing will be biased, unjust, and will seek only to effectuate the purpose of the witch hunt from the very beginning, which was admitted by LAUSD investigators, which was to destroy Mr. Esquith’s career, as it has done with thousands of other teachers,” Meiselas said.
He said Esquith would not participate in “LAUSD’s kangaroo court system.”
Meiselas said school investigators have “engaged in threatening and harassing conduct toward students and parents in low-income and minority neighborhoods” in asking questions about Esquith, a celebrated teacher who started the Hobarth Shakespeareans. He was removed from the classroom after what an assistant teacher thought was an inappropriate reading from Mark Twain.
Meiselas’s letter says that school investigators asked students such questions as have they ever “sat in Mr. Esquith’s lap.”
The district disputed Meiselas’s characterization of the communications with district officials.
In a statement today, the district said it has “endeavored to expedite the investigation of teacher Rafe Esquith to a swift, yet thorough and fair conclusion. Mr. Esquith was not requested to attend a ‘hearing,’ as asserted by his attorney. Rather, he was directed to attend an informal meeting so that he could respond to the allegations made against him.”
The district said those kinds of meetings are conducted before any disciplinary action in the spirit of due process.
“Through his attorney’s letter, Mr. Esquith has flatly refused to comply with this reasonable directive,” the district said. “The District, of course, must investigate serious allegations of misconduct and protect students. It would prefer to accomplish this task with the full cooperation and participation of Mr. Esquith but will take appropriate and responsible next steps regardless.”
Esquith’s legal team has filed a class action lawsuit that lawyers say involves hundreds of teachers who have fallen into what the district calls a “teacher housing” situation while investigations are being done. A Los Angeles Police investigation is also being conducted on the Esquith accusations involving children.
Meiselas said Esquith will no longer do the daily “check-in” as required by teachers in the housed situation.
- Adds district response.