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GERAGOS & GERAGOS

A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION
LAWYERS
HISTORIC ENGINE CO. NO. 28
644 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, California 90017-3411
Telephone (213) 625-3900
Facsimile (213) 625-1600
Geragos@Geragos.com

December 9, 2015

LAUSD HITS NEW LOW IN WITCHUNT


AGAINST TEACHERS
Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas, attorneys for internationally renowned teacher Rafe
Esquith, have issued the following response:
LAUSD, which is run by Superintendent Ramon Cortines who (1) used $350,000.00 in tax
payer money to settle his own crotch-grabbing lawsuit, and (2) who defends a policy in California
Courts that the age of consent for his students with teachers is 14 years old, has hit a new low by
its own exceedingly low and perhaps non-existent standards.
The release of discredited and baseless allegations with no validation in law or any court,
and the piecemeal out-of-context release of an email from a graduate from years ago, reflects the
depths of retaliation and retribution from LAUSD on its last throes of existence due to the class
action brought against it by thousands of teachers who have been victims to LAUSD teacher
witch-hunts.
As an initial matter, Mr. Esquith has never used an LAUSD email account. This means
that LAUSD would have had to hack into Mr. Esquiths personal AOL Account, without a warrant
or notice, and harvested thousands of emails for over a decade since the account was set up.
LAUSD illegally accessed attorney-client documents and marital documents, and crafted
an illegal and criminal strategy to smear Mr. Esquith by purporting to selectively quote an email
from a graduate from years ago from the hundreds of thousands of emails that would have been
processed. No student, or parent to this day has ever made any allegation against Mr. Esquith.
In fact, LAUSDs hit squad invaded the homes and colleges of these students demanding that they
say something negative about Mr. Esquith and threatening to return if they did not. The students
had nothing negative to say. Several former students have hired attorneys and will be bringing
lawsuits against LAUSD for the harassment and abuse inflicted on them by LAUSD investigators
at the direction of Superintendent Cortines.
Additionally, LAUSD is a mandatory reporter under the California Penal Code,
Government Code, and Education Code, to report misconduct to the California Teacher
Credentialing Commission which conducts investigations into teacher misconduct.

The California Teacher Credentialing Commission run by the Governors Office of the
State of California, closed its file on May 27, 2015. If LAUSD believed that an email from 2012,
read in context, or an allegation from when Mr. Esquith was a teenager from 1960 constituted
misconduct, they never reported it. This is because there is no misconduct.
Further, the computer instructor Barbara Hayden, who reported Mr. Esquith for quoting
Huck Finn, which began the witchunt, emailed Mr. Esquith on three separate occasions telling him
that she hoped he returned soon and encouraging his lawsuit against LAUSD. Ms. Hayden was
unaware that LAUSD would use her allegation as pretext for the witchunt.
Finally, rather than release reports and documents to Mr. Esquiths attorneys when they
requested it for months, LAUSD rapidly provided documents to the LA Times in the same way
LAUSD introduced the LA Times to the mother of a phony accuser from the 1960s so they could
get a quote. In response to the public records request, Mr. Esquith demanded that all documents
be turned over, and not LAUSD cherry-picked documents. This includes internal emails from
Superintendent Cortines and from the LAUSD hit-squad team. This includes the materials
submitted by LAUSD to the California Teacher Credentialing Commission when the allegations
were discredited. Mr. Esquith requested all documents relating to the tactics, the cost to tax
payers, and all internal emails bearing his name be turned over. LAUSD responded that Mr.
Esquith would have to seek a Court Order to release all information.
Mr. Esquith was previously subjected to numerous background checks by the United States
Government before receiving the National Medal of Arts from the United States President. He
was subjected to grueling background checks upon being named Disneys Teacher of the Year and
Oprahs Teacher of the Year. He was subjected to rigorous background checks before being
made a Member of the British Empire. Mr. Esquith has nothing to hide and wants the most
transparency rather than a piecemeal leak of fabricated information by LAUSD to the LA Times.
That said, LAUSD has established a dangerous precedent for all teachers. Without any case
or formal charges pending against them in any forum, LAUSD will hack into your private email
accounts, harass and assault former students, and rush to turn over illegally seized and fabricated
information to the press.
It is now clear that LAUSD, which traditionally objects to public records requests on
privacy grounds, has now forever waived those objections based on its conduct here. We
encourage all citizens to make public records requests regarding (1) the personnel files for
Superintendent Cortines and General Counsel David Holmquist including but not limited to all
allegations of sexual harassment and abuse brought against them, (2) for all of the internal emails
by LAUSD relating to teacher jail, (3) for all information regarding the formation and conduct of
the LAUSD hit squad team and the goal of divesting teachers nearing retirement age of their
benefits, and (4) for all information and documents, including internal emails, relating to pending
FBI and other governmental investigations into LAUSD.

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