THE UGLY TRUTH BEHIND LAUSD'S FIRING OF RAFE ESQUITH
(Mensaje se repite en Español)
A reliable source has stated that falsely charged LAUSD teacher Rafe Esquith has predictably been fired by a unanimous vote of the LAUSD Board of Directors in closed session. This is without any verified charges, made under penalty of perjury, as is required by applicable Education Codes and fundamental notions of due process of law.
Throughout the process, as one charge after another has been made against Esquith and then found to be completely false, LAUSD administrators have continued to add charges. The logical question of why these charges weren't brought in a timely manner before is something that has been scrupulously ignored by LAUSD administrators and their high priced lawyers who've gone after Esquith and any other teacher that LAUSD administrators decide to target.
The media never mentions that each time the LAUSD gets rid of a teacher like Esquith, it saves approximately $60,000 in salary and benefits just in the first year. This would actually be a logical reason why Esquith and thousands of other top-of-the-salary-scale teachers have been targeted and removed on clearly false charges.
What makes matters worse in the Esquith case is that he refused to just roll over as so many targeted teachers have done in the past - mostly because they had neither the money nor the will to stand up against a multi-billion dollar behemoth like LAUSD.
Esquith engaged the firm of Geragos & Geragos. They have the bank to play in this high stakes legal game where Esquith and many of the more than 1000 other teachers have been targeted on false charges seem to be ready to fight. These teachers have finally found an advocate willing to go toe-to-toe with the District and its allies at the state and THE UGLY TRUTH BEHIND LAUSD'S FIRING OF RAFE ESQUITH - Perdaily.com:
Isabel’s children–abandoned by Newark’s schools, betrayed by its politicians
There is a lot of cruelty in the way Newark schools treat parents and their children. Especially the way the state-run school administration treats the neediest, the most powerless. Just ask Isabel Troche and her four children.
Here it is in mid-October and Isabel’s children are not in school yet. They only live a few hundred feet from what should be their neighborhood public school–but they can’t go there. In fact, all four of the children have been assigned–for now–to four different schools.
If it were not so cruel, it might almost be funny. A joke about the pratfalls of bureaucracy. But what is happening to Isabel’s children is no joke. It is the deliberate and foreseeable consequence of a state policy called “One Newark” designed to close neighborhood public schools, expand privately-run charter schools and strip the school district of resources and hope.
It also is the result of the collapse of the effort by a broad cross-section of Newark’s residents to fight back against the state–a fight that collapsed in an alleged deal to bring back local control after 20 years of inept state administration.
The members of Isabel Troche’s family are, simply, victims of the state’s indifference to Newark’s residents and of the fecklessness of a local response. No one is fighting back for Isabel’s children.
Isabel’s son, Jose.
“I keep going to places–the schools, the enrollment center, downtown–and they tell me they’ll get back to me but they never do,” says Isabel. “I’ve been trying for weeks and I still can’t get the kids into school.”
Attorneys to Kevin Johnson: Don’t hug city workers
Four months after a former city employee accused Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson of sexual harassment, a law firm hired by the city wrote in a confidential memo that Johnson should “be advised as to how his actions (i.e. hugging and being flirty) are being perceived” by some city employees, and that he should “refrain from hugging or touching anyone” at City Hall or at city-related events.
The legal memo, obtained by The Sacramento Bee, was written in response to a sexual harassment claim filed in April against Johnson by Ilee Muller, a former staff aide to City Manager John Shirey.
The mayor denied the allegations, and the law firm that wrote the Aug. 7 memo – Angelo, Kilday & Kilduff – conducted an investigation that determined Muller’s claim was unsubstantiated. Muller had sought $200,000 in damages from the city, but her claim was denied in May by a closed-door vote of the City Council.
While Muller’s claim was denied, the legal memo stated that an investigation by city human resources manager Kenneth Fleming found “some employees” had perceptions of Johnson’s behavior that prompted the law firm to suggest he “be counseled to refrain from hugging or touching anyone in the workplace or at work-related events (outside of a hand shake).”
The mayor’s office declined comment on the memo Thursday because it is a confidential attorney-client privileged document. However, the mayor’s campaign spokesman, Steve Maviglio, said, “the mayor has taken sexual harassment training; he’s very aware of what’s appropriate and what’s not.”
“Telling a politician not to hug someone is like telling a fisherman not to fish,” he said.
The legal advice to Johnson was one of three recommendations attorneys Carolee Kilduff and Cori Sarno provided City Attorney James Sanchez before closing their file on the harassment case against the mayor.
The attorneys also advised that Shirey, City Clerk Shirley Concolino and city director of governmental affairs Randi Knott receive training on reporting suspected cases of harassment and that the training be documented by the city. The memo stated all three “had knowledge” of Muller’s complaint against the mayor, but did not adequately report it to the city’s human resources department.
Shirey and Concolino received follow-up training on their reporting obligations, according to the memo. Knott said in an interview that she was not told about the recommendation that she receive training.
Finally, the memo recommended that “each elected and appointed official who oversees personnel undertake sexual harassment training.”
Dmitri Mehlhorn is a venture capitalist and school "reform" advocate. He was the COO of StudentsFirst, Michelle Rhee's education "reform" lobbying group, and he maintains a regular presence in both traditional and social media as an advocate for charter school proliferation, the revocation of teacher tenure as it is currently constituted, and other similar "reform" policies.
I have had several Twitter back-and-forths with Mehlhorn, and I've found them extremely unsatisfying. To be clear, that's not his fault, nor is it mine: it's the inherent limitations of 140 characters that have kept us from having a substantive debate.
The funny thing is that I enjoy our exchanges. I think Mehlhorn is a sincere advocate for policies he believes will genuinely help America's students. I also believe, however, that he's wrong about nearly everything when it comes to education -- particularly when it comes to charter schools.
At Dmitri's suggestion, we are going to have a dialog about charters here on my blog. I promised him that I would let his words stand here free of any editing on my part [I have added a few links in the text, but that's all], and that I would make my opposing case in separate posts.
I don't know how long our exchange will go, but I will respond to what Mehlhorn wrote
The pillaging of public education tax money for the profit a few private corporations, hedge funds, and their multimillionaire/billionaire owners is criminal.
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