California Senator Tony Mendoza

The state Joint Legislative Audit Committee yesterday approved an request by Senator Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) to examine LA Unified’s “teacher jail,” a controversial process the district uses when investigating allegations of wrongdoing by employees.

“The goal of this audit is to examine the basis, extent, and impact ‘Teacher Jail’ has on student learning as well as to determine the cost, outcomes, and effectiveness of this practice,” Mendoza said in a statement. “Student safety should always be our top priority when evaluating any school employee disciplinary system. We must tread lightly when removing teachers for minor, non-safety related allegations because disrupting a student’s classroom environment can negatively impact their learning.”

“Teacher jail” is a disciplinary procedure not just used against teachers but nearly all district employees who have been accused of wrongdoing, illegal activity or violating district policy. Before 2014, the district often sent the accused  to an administrative building while their case was investigated, which could often take months. The employee remained on the payroll but was given few if any tasks while being forced to sit in the administrative buildings for hours a day.

More recently, employees are sent home to wait out the investigation.

“Teacher jail” has been a point of contention between the LA teachers union, UTLA, and district leaders, with union leaders often saying the process is overused and unfair. In April of 2013, the number of employees in “teacher jail” reached a peak, with 322 under investigation, according to numbers provided by the district to LA School Report in July.

A class-action lawsuit was recently filed on behalf of thousands of LAUSD teachers alleging the system is unfair. The suit was filed in state superior court by lawyers for Rafe Esquith, a well-known teacher who was dismissed in April after a “teacher jail” investigation led to public accusations of sexually inappropriate conduct and financial questions regarding a charity foundation he operated.

It is unclear what the implications could be as a result of the audit, and Mendoza did not respond to a request to comment.

In the audit request, he wrote: “As this practice is known to be most publicly prevalent at LAUSD, I believe that the audit should focus on that district. However, it is important that the audit should also place the results in a wider context of disciplinary measures for employees at other school districts so that the appropriateness, effectiveness and cost-benefit ratio can be better determined.”

Following up on a months-long threat, high-profile attorney Mark Geragos today slapped LA Unified with a class action lawsuit, calling for an end to the practice of “teacher jails” and asking for more than $1 billion in damages.

The suit was filed in state superior court on behalf of Rafe Esquith, a well-known teacher who was dismissed in April, as well as thousands of other unnamed teachers who have been placed in “jail” by the district in recent years. Calling LAUSD “a criminal cartel,” the suit charges the district with violations of due process, age discrimination, whistleblower retaliation and wrongful discharge —  all in a scheme to remove older teachers whose salaries and benefits make them more expensive to retain.

Among the defendants named are Superintendent Ramon Cortines and his yet-to-be-chosen successor. Cortines intends to step down in December.

At his downtown office only a few blocks from LAUSD headquarters, Geragos accused the district of engaging in “a pattern and practice of the LA Unified school district basically divesting teachers of their benefits once they reach a certain age. The method by which they do this is they gin up false charges, they make false accusations.”

“I’m calling for the complete shutdown of LAUSD,” Geragos added. “I think LAUSD is a completely corrupt organization. They have consigliere lawyers.”

A spokeswoman said the district “has not reviewed the lawsuit and therefore has no comment at this time.”

This legal action comes a day after the Los Angeles Times disclosed that the school board, in a closed session this week, voted unanimously to start termination proceedings against Esquith over allegations that went well beyond the original charge for removing him from his classroom — quoting a passage from Mark Twain that referred to “naked” bodies. The school district said it would not comment on the accuracy of the story, describing it as a private personnel matter. Esquith’s attorneys say they have not been told of the teacher’s imminent dismissal.

“This is another pattern of the school board,” Geragos said. “They meet in secret, they have secret documents. They have a secret investigation.”

The district’s initial investigation grew to examine other incidents in Esquith’s past.

Lawyers for LA Unified have said the investigation into his background found evidence of “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. Geragos said no such evidence has ever been presented to him since the teacher was removed from his classroom.

“They have an investigative hit squad that goes out and 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 so they don’t vest in their retirement benefits,” Geragos said.

Esquith, 61, has said he would like to return to teaching and has faced health issues due to stress over his being assigned to “teacher jail” where he had to sit during the school day rather than be in his classroom. Geragos said that more than 1,000 teachers have contacted his office over the similar complaints.

“We get 20, 30, some days as many as 50 teachers who have complained about this, and it’s the same pattern over and over again,” Geragos said.

Geragos reviewed a litany of accusations against LA Unified, including rehiring “a lawyer who said it’s OK for an eighth grader to consent to sex” and hiring a law firm that covered up evidence in the Miramonte school scandal. He continuously referred to the superintendent as “crotch-grabbing Cortines,” a reference to allegations made against Cortines in a sexual harrasment lawsuit from a former district employee.

Geragos said to expect several other lawsuits soon from “people intimated, coerced and frightened by the investigative hit squad.”

He called the off-site location of where teachers are housed, “Something that looks like an old Soviet gulag where teachers have to go each day, and taxpayers should see this as some kind of an affront to put teachers somewhere that looks like a place where Costco stores sausages. You can’t warehouse people like this.”

Lawyers representing have asked the union to join the class action but is still awaiting a response.

“We would love to have the union be involved in our efforts because I’m sure they could provide more cases of the egregious use of the teacher jail,” said Esquith’s attorney Ben Meiselas at Geragos’s lawfirm. “We have already collected hundreds of stories.”

UTLA began holding meetings about the teacher jails soon after former Superintendent John Deasy ramped up the practice of pulling unwanted teachers out of classroom under the guise of protecting students. UTLA is developing strategy to determine how to handle the situation.

Two “jailed” teachers who stated their cases to the school board at the last meeting said they haven’t received much help from the union. Teacher Jay L. Stern said he is fighting his dismissal next month after spending months in what the district calls the “housed teachers” situation.

“The union hasn’t been able to help stop this witch hunt,” Stern said.

In another teacher jail case, Blake Clement said, “I have been getting more help from other teachers in my situation who have told me where to check on my status and giving me tips about what to do. The teacher’s advocate at UTLA isn’t there anymore.”

The Unjustly Housed Teacher Committee meeting is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. at UTLA headquarters. It is only opened to LAUSD teachers.

A student was eventually arrested by the LAPD and charged with creating the page, but not before the teacher, Jason Duchan, was suspended from his job as an art instructor at John Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley.

Duchan’s lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and seeks unspecified damages, includes allegations of retaliation, harassment, defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to City News Service. Duchan also claims he has suffered panic attacks and other mental health struggles as a result of his suspension and the district’s retaliation.

Duchan spoke to LA School Report in March and he outlined the details of his complaints against the district, which began in November of 2014, when he said he was suddenly suspended without being told why. Duchan said if district officials had asked him about the Facebook page, the matter could have been cleared up in one afternoon without a suspension.

“They should have called me in and showed me the Facebook page,” Duchan said in a phone interview.

Duchan provided screen shots of the Facebook page, which had a total of one friend and three posts that included some mild sexual references. Duchan said the one friend the page had turned out to be the student who was arrested for creating it. Duchan said he had caught the student drawing genitals on a desk — something one of the Facebook posts made a reference to — and reported him to the school’s principal. He said he believes the Facebook page was created as a revenge plot by the student.

The district sent out a letter to all the school’s parents informing them of Duchan’s removal, something that is district policy in the aftermath of the Miramonte Elementary abuse scandal when LA Unified created new procedures to deal with sexual misconduct allegations against district employees.

Duchan said the district eventually offered him his old job back after a few weeks but refused to publicly clear his name. LA School Report confirmed in March that a student had been arrested and charged with creating the page. The student was not publicly identified because he was a minor. Despite the arrest, Jose Cantu, head of the district’s Student Safety Investigative Team, said that an active investigation of Duchan by the district was still underway.

“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?” Duchan said.

Sending him back to the same classroom without clearing his name would invite disrespect and hostility from students, parents and other teachers, put him in physical danger, and “caused plaintiff to develop or exacerbate his mental disability,” the suit alleges, according to City News Service. “Plaintiff suffered a severe panic attack.”

LA Unified communications director Shannon Haber said the district was reviewing the lawsuit and had no comment.

Duchan was given a teaching job at the Cesar E. Chavez Learning Academies, but the lawsuit claims the district continued to retaliate against him through various means, including his sick leave absences being reported as being unexcused, City News Service reported.

In response to the “teacher jailing” of a beloved LA Unified teacher, Rafe Esquith, acclaimed actors Ian McKellen and Hal Holbrook joined past and present students in a You Tube video to offer their support for Esquith and to show how money spent from his after-school program, Hobart Shakespeareans, benefitted his students.

“It is our response to their request for 15 years of financial records of the Hobart  Shakespeareans,” said attorney Ben Meiselas, who is representing Esquith with Mark Geragos in a dispute with the district. The response was accompanied by a July 28 letter and signed by Geragos, questioning why an outside law firm hired by the district is delving into the school program that was paid for by donations and often by the teacher himself.

Geragos also questioned who hired the firm, Sedgwick, and under what authority is it investigating the financial history of Hobart Shakespeareans.

In a letter to Sedwick lawyers, Geragos wrote:

“Your letter states that the scope of the investigation has changed, yet again, and is now focused on ‘Mr. Esquith’s compliance with government ethics laws in his actions with the Shakespeareans.’ Your July 20, 2015 letter to the Shakespeareans and your statements concerning Mr. Esquith constitute defamation of character per se. Please notify your legal malpractice carrier that we now intend to include the Sedgwick law firm as a defendant in our action against LAUSD for defamation of character and for aiding and abetting the tortious conduct and due process violations by LAUSD.”

The video begins with Oscar-nominated McKellen saying, “A confession, Rafe Esquith is one my heroes.”  He then speaks directly to LAUSD and explains what money collected by the after-school program supported.

“They learned Shakespeare and read all sorts of literature under Rafe’s guidance,” said McKellen, who has volunteered his time for the program. “Rafe was unjustly removed from the classroom where he does this miraculous work.”

The nearly five-minute video shows students with violins and guitars that the fund helped them buy. Students talked about going to Broadway shows in New York, the Lincoln Memorial and the John Steinbeck Museum. Former graduates talked about graduating first in their class from Brown University, attending University of Texas graduate school and attending Northwestern. Students said they learned dance, web design, acting, music and much more through the program.

McKellen holds up a “Lord of the Rings” book — he earned a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination in the movie adaption — and said, “And they bought books like this. That’s another way they’ve been spending their money.”

Holbrook, best known for his Tony winning and Emmy-nominated portrayals of Mark Twain, held up “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the book that initially got the teacher in trouble. Holbrook asked, “Have you read it?”

Then, he quoted an actual quote from Twain and said, “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”

The Student Safety Investigation Team (SSIT) now has 15 members, including six full-time investigators, four LA school police, two forensic specialists and one supervising investigator. The team is directed by Jose Cantu, who has worked at LAUSD for more than 30 years, including 14 years as a principal at Eastman Avenue Elementary School.

“This is unique for a team like this in any school district in the United States,” said district spokeswoman Shannon Haber.

The backgrounds of the staff working on the SSIT reflect expertise in police policies and investigative education.

One of the investigators is formerly from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department. Three investigators once worked for the Los Angeles Police Department.

One of the investigators has had FBI experience and one is from the Department of Social Services.

The SSIT investigates employee misconduct against students while the subject of the investigation, a teacher or staff member, is moved from the classroom to “jail.” The team responds to complaints from a variety of sources, such as students, a fellow teacher or a parent. If an investigation produces evidence of criminal misconduct, the SSIT will take it to the proper authorities.

As of July 1, SSIT members were investigating 174 district employees, most of them teachers. The total includes 65 accused of questionable sexual abuse or harassment while the rest face accusations on a variety of other issues, including 55, who have been cited for acts of violence.

The total reflects 151 certificated employees and 23 classified, such as teacher assistants, library aides, janitors and other support staff.

Almost the same number are facing accusations of “violence.”

As of July 1, a total of 174 district employees, the vast majority of them teachers, have been taken out of classrooms, awaiting the results of an investigation into charges. The total includes 65 accused of questionable sexual abuse or harassment, about 37 percent, while the rest face accusations on a variety of other issues, including 55 (or 32 percent) who have been cited for violent acts.

The total reflects 151 certificated employees and 23 classified, such as teacher assistants, library aides, janitors and other support staff.

The list, made available to LA School Report, is the first comprehensive breakdown of misconduct allegations being investigated by the district’s Student Safety Investigative Team (SSIT). And while it suggests that large numbers of personnel are still being taken out classrooms and schools for the goal of protecting students, it also shows that the district is making progress on clearing cases at a faster pace than in years past.

The district said today that the number of housed district employees reached a peak on April 9, 2013, with 322 teachers who were removed from classrooms.

“The district continues to deal with the housed teachers situation as quickly as possible, and they have expanded the staff and the scope for the investigations,” said Shannon Haber, the LAUSD district spokeswoman. “As of July 1, the SSIT is investigating all sexual and nonsexual allegations which have resulted in the teachers being reassigned.”

In a statement, UTLA said: “The ‘teacher jail’ system that ballooned under former Superintendent John Deasy was broken. In our new collective bargaining agreement with LAUSD, important changes were made that protect both students and due process rights of educators.”

On the other hand, the union still expressed concerns that the district was using teacher jail inappropriately.

“Allegations that do not involve safety should not result in an educator being removed from the classroom—a move that is disruptive to students,” the statement said. “Unfortunately educators have been stuck in ‘teacher jail’ over concerns about field trips and science experiments, or for simply questioning a principal’s decisions. We are hopeful that the changes we negotiated will put an end to these practices.”

Suzanne Spurgeon, the union spokeswoman, added, “UTLA will be meeting with LAUSD monthly to review cases under the new contract language.”

The issue of teacher jail — more formally know as “housed teachers” — has been a persistent and contentious issue between the district and the teachers for years. Throughout his campaign for the union presidency last year and again during negotiations for a new labor contract this year, Alex Caputo-Pearl demanded an end to teacher jail, insisting that the district intentionally delayed in resolving cases and unfairly denied teachers a full explanation of why they have been removed.

Through sustained pressure from the union, the district agreed to make the process more transparent and expedite case resolution.

The latest statistics show that 65 of classified and certified personnel were taken out of the classroom for sexual abuse or harassment allegations. The vast majority of the cases, 62, involved a minor while the other three involved another adult. In five cases, the incident happened to non-LAUSD victims.

The second-largest category was violence, accounting for 55 removals — almost 32 percent — although the district did not break down what sorts of incidents were involved. Another 14 people were removed in each of two infraction categories — “inappropriate language” and “below standard performance.”

Other reasons that teachers were taken out of the classrooms include: “Failure to report child abuse” (4), “Finances”  (3), “Accepted use policy violations,” for things like inappropriate software use (2)  and “Drugs/Alcohol” (2).

The school board in 2013 instructed former Superintendent John Deasy to set up a team of professional investigators to speed up investigations of allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct against teachers and other employees. At that time, the focus was primarily accusations of sexual abuse against students, in part, due to major scandals of misconduct by teachers the year before at Telfair Elementary in Pacoima and Miramonte Elementary in south Los Angeles.

By January 2014, the district created the SSIT to accelerate investigations with a staff of seven. But over the last year or so, the staff grew to 15 as the district expanded the mission to include investigations on a wider array of alleged violations.

For now, some teachers are allowed to stay at their homes during the period of investigation while other spend time at a district holding facility during school hours, and can return home by the end of the day. They are not allowed to have computer access or work on school activities while being reassigned.

Rafe Esquith

Just what was it that landed Rafe Esquith, a nationally-renowned teacher, in LA Unified’s “teacher jail”?

A line from Mark Twain, his lawyer said in a letter to the district.

Esquith’s lawyer, Ben Meiselas, told the district no parent had complained, nor had a student complained. LAUSD officials, ever more sensitive to classroom issues and protections of students since the Miramonte case, have not commented on all the allegations.

Yet now, Esquith finds himself in hot water, now facing questions that go well beyond why he found a passage in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” so amusing.

It apparently started when a technology coordinator who was in his Hobart Elementary School classroom on March 19 thought that what he said may have been a bit too much for his fifth graders, according to a chronology of events in the letter. She told the principal, Jonathan Paek. When he confronted Esquith, the teacher said the quote should be taken in the literary context that it was made.

Esquith said he had been making a joke about LAUSD’s not funding the arts and sciences, according to Meiselas. Esquith told the students that if enough money wasn’t raised for their annual Shakespearean play, which Esquith was funding from his own pocket and from private donations, that “we will all have to play the role of the king in Huckeberry Finn.”

Then, he read the offending excerpt:

“The duke and the king worked hard all day, setting up a stage and curtain and row of candles for footlights. At last, when he’d built up everyone’s expectations high enough, he rolled up the curtain.

“The next minute the king came prancing out on all fours, naked. He was painted in rings and stripes all over in all sorts of colors and looked as splendid as a rainbow.

“And,… well, never mind the rest of his outfit—it was just as wild, but it was really funny. The people nearly died laughing. And when the king finished prancing around and capered off stage, they roared and clapped and raged and guffawed until he came back and did it all over again.”

Paek asked Esquith to sign a letter of apology to acknowledge that the statements might be viewed as “serious” and may have been made “others uncomfortable,” according to the letter. Before consulting with an attorney, Esquith signed the apology, which reads:

“I am deeply and sincerely sorry that any comment someone hear, or thought they heard, has anyone uncomfortable. I am a teacher who prides himself on professionalism. I dress immaculately for the job. Over a thousand teachers a year come to my class to seek my guidance about the profession of teaching. As a proud teacher, I am deeply saddened by this situation.”

Superintendent Ramon Cortines issued a statement June 19 that said the initial investigation against Esquith is expected to end in August.

Mark Geragos

High-profile attorney Mark Geragos has notified LAUSD that he intends to file a class action lawsuit about the so-called “teacher jails” that could involve hundreds–and potentially thousands–of past and present teachers.

The required notice for the class action lawsuit was stamped and received by the school board on June 22, and 45 days from that date the suit will be filed, according to Ben Meiselas, an associate of Geragos & Geragos who is representing noted educator Rafe Esquith, who was taken from his classroom earlier this year and placed in teacher jail, pending an investigation on a variety of issues.

The letter, obtained by the LA School Report, deals mostly with the Esquith case, but it also gives notice of a class action complaint “on behalf of all teachers, during the applicable statue of limitations period, who have been denied procedural and substantive due process by LAUSD.”

The notice says: “It is anticipated the composition of the relevant class will be comprised of at least several thousand current and former LAUSD teachers who have similarly been deprived of due process, and have endured arbitrary process, undefined investigations, indefinite stays in teacher jail, and capricious classroom removals.”

The issue is an especially volatile one with LA Unified, which has been severely criticized over the years by the teachers union, UTLA, for what union officials say is a capricious and unfair discipline system. Tensions were especially acute during John Deasy‘s years as superintendent, making the elimination of teacher jail a prime rallying cry of Alex Caputo-Pearl‘s run for the union presidency last year and the union’s subsequent campaign for a new labor agreement with the district.

Under Ramon Cortines, who took over when Deasy resigned last year, both sides say progress has been made in expediting cases involving teachers in jail, reducing the number of teachers still kept out of their classrooms. It remains unclear what impact, if any, a class action lawsuit might have on the improving approach to resolving cases.

Since representing Esquith, Meiselas said the firm has collected 300 to 400 names of teachers reporting trouble with the LAUSD disciplinary procedure. In fact, at the same time he was discussing the case today with LA School Report, Meiselas said he received emails from teachers, asking for help.

“This one says, ‘I am a former teacher who was held for nine months in the teacher jail,’” he said, reading one.

Another email detailed the teacher’s detainment and said, “I’m one of the teachers who can address the adversarial and spiteful culture of the administration.”

Another that he read said: “I’ve been in teacher’s jail for 10 months. Please help me!”

Meiselas said he is amazed at how many teachers have contacted him about the unfairness of the teacher jail, which requires that teachers be taken out of a classroom immediately and forced to sit idly in a downtown office as an investigation proceeds.

“Sometimes the teachers don’t even know what they are charged with, and the process could take months or even years,” Meiselas said.

His defense of the popular and highly-respected fifth grade teacher Esquith led to many stories of other teachers in similar situations.

“It’s tragic, these are intelligent vibrant teachers with masters and doctorates who are under a McCarthy-like system,” Meiselas said. “They have not been provided notice of allegations and it has taken an unfair McCarthy-like tilt to any American jurisprudence.”

Meiselas said his office has noticed a pattern of allegations against teachers who are older than 50 and are usually in higher-end pay scales.

“We want to compel a systematic change at the school board and not have a system that is anti-teacher,” Meiselas said.

Geragos, who is normally a criminal defense attorney, will be taking up the lead in the class action case against LAUSD, Meiselas said.

The school district has another two weeks or so to respond, after which Meiselas said his office will file the class action lawsuit.

Esquith, a best selling author who has also received national awards and media attention for his work at Hobart Avenue Elementary School, was removed from the classroom in April in response to a complaint that he made a joke about nudity while referencing Mark Twain. The district’s investigation of his background revealed he has been accused of physically and sexually abusing a child four decades ago when he was a teenager working at a summer camp.

South Gate Middle School teacher Stuart Lutz

LA Unified art teacher Stuart Lutz had a celebratory homecoming today as he returned to the classroom after nearly eight months in so-called “teacher jail.”

Lutz was pulled from South Gate Middle School on April 21 while the district investigated allegations of mishandling fundraising money for an annual field trip to Disneyland Art Studio.

Throughout the investigation, Lutz, who is the teachers union Chapter Chair for the school, and his supporters maintained there was no wrong-doing and claimed the disciplinary actions taken against him were in retaliation for his queries into the school budget, complaints about insufficient campus restrooms, and concerns about unsafe conditions for students.

A request for comment from the district’s legal counsel on the findings of the investigation was not returned. However, UTLA spokesperson Suzanne Spurgeon told LA School Report, “At the urging of UTLA, the District — under [Superintendent Ramon] Cortines— took a closer look at Lutz’s case and agreed he should be allowed back at South Gate Middle School.”

In recent years there has been a rapid rise in the number of teachers accused of misconduct and removed from school campuses and forced to report to “work” at district buildings and later, at home.  But even as their numbers have grown, accused teachers complain they are often kept in the dark about the charges against them and any progress made in their cases. Investigations can take several months or even years to conclude.

More than 250 teachers are on administrative leave while the district investigates their cases.

The practice is so widespread that it’s become one of the cornerstones of UTLA contract negotiations. The union is calling on the district to speed up the process and provide more transparency throughout.

“The district has recognized that this process required changes and it has been in the process of making changes,” Vivian Ekchian, the district’s Chief Labor Negotiator, told LA School Report.

Ekchian says important changes have been implemented within the last two months. Now, she says, “If there’s an allegation of misconduct then the decision as to whether the person should be reassigned to home or to work at an another location is being monitored much with greater scrutiny, before a pending investigation.”

The investigatory process has also been streamlined, according to Ekchian. And the district has formed a focus group that includes labor partners to provide feedback to the individuals involved in the process.

Superintendent John Deasy

Under withering criticism over the iPad program, a new student-tracking computer system and discordant relations with the teachers union, LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy said today that the attacks feel politically motivated at the expense of his agenda to improve the lives of district students.

“I serve at the pleasure of the board,” he said today in a wide-ranging interview with LA School Report. “If the board is not pleased, they can get rid of me at their pleasure.”

Asked if he would relieve them of that action by stepping down, he said, “I’m not prepared to answer that question.”

His tenure aside, Deasy said when he considers the acid tone of criticism over a confluence of issues, “I think it’s a troubling sign to me that the agenda is possibly no longer students. I had always assumed that the agenda was lifting students out of poverty. The agenda appears to be lifting Deasy out of LAUSD.”

The drumbeat of criticism is threatening to end a period of apparent comity and collegiality between Deasy and the school board that began last fall, shortly after it appeared that Deasy was resigning from a post he held since 2011.

Over the last 10 months or so, board meetings have played out with little of the tension that characterized previous meetings. Board President Richard Vladovic, especially, has shown a willingness to work closely and productively with Deasy.

But apparent unity could be cracking under the weight of problems with the iPad program and the bumpy implementation of a computer system that principals, teachers and parents rely on to track the progress and whereabouts of students.

Beyond that, Alex Caputo-Pearl, the new president of the teachers union, UTLA, has persisted in hammering Deasy over a wide range of issues, not least the district’s unwillingness to satisfy union demands for a 17.6 percent salary raise over the next two years.

The latest attack from the union came this morning at LA Unified headquarters, where union members staged a rally, calling for Deasy to be put in the same sort of “jail” that houses teachers who are pulled out of classrooms for reasons not made entirely clear to them.

Citing the district’s past efforts to deal with sexual predators in the classroom, which lead them to teacher “jail,” Deasy called the union’s rally “a terribly misguided effort to score political points.”

The iPad program has been a particular burden for Deasy, with almost daily accusations that he and a former lieutenant, Jaime Aquino, acted illegally, unethically or immorally in securing contracts with Apple and Pearson.

“It feels like a witch hunt,” Deasy said. “And people are feeding this.”

Two investigations into the bidding process — one by the district Inspector General and a second by the LA County District Attorney—  cleared him and Aquino of any improprieties.

Yet a series of emails released last week between Deasy and Aquino and the companies before the bid process has fueled new suspicions that they rigged the bid for Apple and Pearson to win it.

Board members Monica Ratliff and Bennett Kayser are introducing a measure at the next board meeting, on Sept. 9, asking that the Inspector General’s report be made public. Several board members say they would support a new investigation by the Inspector General into the pre-bid period.

In a six-page memo Deasy sent yesterday to board members, he outlined his actions regarding the iPad program before and during the bid process and defended them as proper business procedure. He reiterated his position to LA School Report, saying conversations with potential vendors prior to bids are routine for any purchase the district makes.

“If I want to buy rugs, I go to a company and say let me use them in the classroom for five months before I commit to buying them,” Deasy said. “It’s common industry practice.”

He referred specifically to an email urging the companies to make the lowest bid. “Damn sure I urged them to make a lowest bid,” he said. “Can you imagine the response if I had urged them to make the highest bid?”

He also said he had conversations with other vendors although the district has not released any emails or other communications confirming that.

In any case, his defenses have done little to quiet critics. Chief among them has been Ratliff, who as chair of the Common Core Technology Project Committee, presented her own overview of the iPad program, enumerating its failings and making recommendations for going forward.

As for the student-tracking computer system, Deasy conceded that criticisms were “very valid,” that the district has been working on it for years and “we’ve got to get this to a place where we do this better.”

As the board meets again next week, will the old animosites break into view?

“I don’t want them to,” Deasy said. “But that’s up to the board.”

Alex Caputo-Pearl speaking at a news conference 9-3-2014

UTLA is calling on Superintendent John Deasy to lock himself in teacher jail while he’s under any investigation over iPads, computer systems or anything else.

At a rally earlier today union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told a crowd of teachers, “We are saying that he has to play by his own rules… He must not report to work here, he must report to teacher jail or report to home.”

Caputo-Pearl also called on “whoever is at the head of this district to be focused on schools and students and the day-to-day operations, and not scrambling to try to get out of investigations.” Assuming that’s Deasy, Caputo-Pearl did not explain how he might do that from “jail.”

The union claims that since Deasy took over, the district has escalated the practice of removing teachers accused of misconduct from the classroom and reassigning them to the central office where they often do nothing but continue drawing a paycheck. And many teachers who have been reinstated after a stint in teacher jail complain they were never informed of the charges against them.

In that respect, Caputo-Pearl said, “He [Deasy] actually has an advantage over many of our members who experience this, he knows the allegations against him.”

Deasy is also under scrutiny for his dealings with Apple and Pearson, leading up to the iPad deal, which was expected to cost the district upwards of $1 billion. He’s also under fire for launching MiSiS despite reports the student data base management system was riddled with problems.

UTLA hopes to end the widespread use of teacher jail for all but the most egregious offenders — those who pose a real threat to student safety.

Deasy responded to the protest in an interview with KNX calling it political grandstanding and pledged to continue to do his job.

“Our team is way too focused about lifting youth out of poverty to be involved in nonsense politics,” he said. “I think the only opinion that matters is what we’re doing for students.” The superintendent also defended his involvement with the tablet makers in a memo to the school board, leaked to the LAT Times.

“Today, even though we have taken advantage of a number of opportunities to constantly improve processes associated with this work, this extremely important initiative for the youth of LAUSD has been sidetracked by insinuations, innuendoes, and misleading statements,” he wrote.

Previous Posts: LAUSD aiming to resolve MiSiS issues as ‘Norm Day’ approaches; The Ratliff report: one view of the iPad program gone awry; Teachers union says computer glitch cost students first day

The union’s Committee for Unjustly Housed Teachers was meeting today, for the first time this school year, in a strategy session to determine how to tackle what they view as the district’s abusive use of the “teacher jails.”

“We need to develop a plan for getting the district to follow the policies that they have in place for housed teachers,” committee point chair, Colleen Schwab told LA School Report before the meeting. “That’s our goal, at the minimum. To get them to do what they said they would.”

Schwab, who’s co-lead of the committee since its inception a year ago, stressed that the teachers union has no intention of calling for the complete elimination jails.

“Obviously, we need a place for teachers who could harm students while the district conducts its investigations,” she said. “But there has to be a better solution than what is happening right now.”

The union contends that the LA Unified administrators, including Superintendent John Deasy in particular, have ramped up the practice of pulling unwanted teachers out of classroom under the guise of protecting students. UTLA estimates more than 300 teachers are currently reporting to work at district offices or have been re-assigned to work from home.

Once there, many teachers report they are not informed about the charges against them, and sometimes, as in the recent case of choir director Iris Stevenson, are returned to their jobs without any explanation of what happened or the results of the investigation.

“What we see now more than ever, are teachers being pulled out for reasons other than student safety,” Schwab said, before adding that one teacher she’s spoken to has been removed from the classroom while the district looks into the handling of school club funds.

“That’s not what these policies were written for,” Schwab said. “No kid is in danger in that case.”

The issue of teacher jail has reached a critical point as the union continues labor negotiations with the district. Schwab says the committee has not decided how strongly it will push to make reforms part of the official contract talks though she says, “I’m sure it’s going to come up one way or another, but we might decide to keep working with the district outside of those talks.”

Stevenson, who’s led an award-winning music program at the school for nearly three decades, was pulled from teaching last December and reassigned to report to work at district offices — a sort of purgatory for educators under investigation by LA Unified, often called “teacher jail.”

District officials shared little information about why Stevenson was allowed to return to her teaching duties saying only, “ [H]er case, which is a confidential, personnel matter, remains under investigation.”

The district has never publicly explained the nature of allegations against Stevenson — again, citing privacy laws. However, there was speculation that it involved a field trip she took with her choir to France, then a performance at the White House for President Obama that did not have prior approval. But, Stevenson and the teachers union, maintain she had gotten all appropriate permission to go on the trip.

“I am overjoyed that the students and families at Crenshaw High School, a school community so close to my heart and home, will have Ms. Stevenson back, to continue her work as a lifeline and mentor to so many,” Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of UTLA, said in a statement.

“At the same time, I stand with communities and educators across the city who continue to feel such anger at the Superintendent’s irresponsible ‘teacher jail’ policy.  This destabilization of already-vulnerable schools and this attacking of educators’ reputations must stop.”

Kim Baldonado reports for NBC4 News on a shift in policy at LA Unified (LAUSD)  where teachers accused of misconduct will no longer spend days at district offices while awaiting review of allegations.

Via The Nation | By JoAnn Wypijewski 

Iris Stevenson hurt no child, seduced no teenager, abused no student at Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles. This is what her supporters say in rallying outrage that this exemplary teacher has languished for months in the gulag of administrative detention known as “teacher jail”: she doesn’t belong there.

And she doesn’t.

Days before being removed from her music classes in December and ordered to spend her workdays isolated on a floor of the LA Unified School District (LAUSD) HQ with other suspect teachers, Stevenson, a legend in South LA and beyond, was at the White House directing the renowned Crenshaw Elite Choir as it sang for President Obama.

She has not been officially informed of the charges against her. Unofficially, Stevenson is said to have swept off the choir to perform first in Paris and then in Washington without permission—an absurd claim, since parents had to consent, and Stevenson has conducted such foundation-supported field trips untroubled for decades. District authorities say only that Stevenson is under investigation.

Read the full story here.

Accused murderer and meth addict Michael Kane, an LAUSD elementary school teacher, has no previous history of violence during his career as a teacher and his personnel file states he was never removed from his classroom for any misbehavior, according to district officials.

Kane began working for the district in 1997 as a substitute teacher and taught at Carthay Center and Bassett Street Elementary before being assigned to Nestle Avenue Elementary School in 2008.

Kane pleaded not guilty to murder and three other counts Wednesday.

Los Angeles Unified officials said Kane had no disciplinary actions listed in his file, which would theoretically also reveal if the teacher had been removed from his classroom and placed in a so-called “teacher jail” if he was being investigated for any misbehavior.

However, because of privacy laws teachers may be placed in “teacher jails” during investigations and “nobody would know,” according to Leonard Isenberg, a former LAUSD teacher and founder of perdaily.com, an education blog and advocacy site for teachers accused of misconduct.

What’s more, Isenberg argues that while the district or union should document if a teacher is removed from a classroom for any reason, that is not currently the case.

“If you are put in a ‘teacher jail’ there should be a record of it,” said Isenberg. “But UTLA doesn’t even know how many teachers are in ‘teacher jail’ and they don’t do anything to find out.”

United Teachers of Los Angeles did not respond to our request for comment or clarification about records of Kane’s behavior. None of the schools where Kane has worked responded to comment on Kane’s alleged behavior, either.

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Slated for a vote at next Tuesday’s Board meeting, the Galatzan resolution would shorten the time it takes to inform teachers what they’re being accused of, speed the internal investigation process for teachers whose actions may be inappropriate but fall short of criminal prosecution, and put the internal investigation in the hands of district rather than school-based staff.

And — thanks to its modest scope and careful planning that went into the development process — the proposal by the San Fernando Valley-based Board member is being cosponsored not only by Board member Monica Garcia but also UTLA-friendly Board member Bennett Kayser, whom Galatzan says volunteered to co-sponsor the resolution.

“We met with [United Teachers of Los Angeles], [Associated Administrators of LA], and district staff,” said Galatzan. “We got everyone’s input on what they thought the problem was. That was our jumping-off point.”

The Board fired 99 teachers and allowed 122 others to resign last year, according to the Daily News — and has already fired 24 and allowed 92 to resign as of February 2013.

Normally, when a teacher is accused of physically and seriously harming a child (i.e., hitting them or touching them inappropriately), law enforcement officials investigate.

During the investigation, the teacher is removed from a classroom and placed in a so-called “teacher jail” or “rubber room” pending investigation of alleged misdeeds .

The time teachers spend there can be lengthy — most of it due the time it takes for law enforcement to do its investigation, according to Galatzan.

According to a November 2012 audit, LAUSD has been required to pay $3 million in salaries to 20 teachers who have been ‘housed’ (removed from site) the longest while being investigated for misconduct – including one who’s been housed for 4.5 years.

In most cases, teachers do not end up returning to the classroom.  Last year, only 16 returned, and only 14 have been reassigned as of December this year.

However, sometimes law enforcement, for a variety of reasons, determines that there is no criminal act or decides it can’t make the charges stick.

That’s where Galatzan’s resolution comes in.

“My resolution targets what happens next,” according to Galatzan.

Its main purpose is to deal with teachers being accused of the most serious of offenses — such as allegations of physical or sexual misconduct.

In these cases, the school district can investigate any violation of the State education code or the district rules.

Galatzan doesn’t know how many investigators would be needed. Should the Board approve her resolution, Superintendent John Deasy would report back within 90 days to say how many investigators the district should hire and how the district would pay for it.

In the meantime, Galatzan is optimistic about the new bill coming out of Sacramento, AB 375, that would make it easier for school districts to fire teachers found guilty of serious misconduct.

“My resolution is almost a companion piece,” she said. “Sacramento is working on making changes to the [state] ed code. My focus is on policies and procedures within the district.”

Previous posts: UTLA Have Different Plans to Reform “Teacher Jails“; UTLA Rails Against “Teacher Jails”; LAUSD’s Crowded “Rubber Rooms”; “Rubber Room” Teachers Rarely Return