LOS ANGELES (CN) - Los Angeles Unified School District pulled an "internationally renowned" teacher from the classroom and defamed him after he cited a passage of "Huckleberry Finn" that mentioned nudity, the teacher claims in court.
Rafe Esquith sued LAUSD, Superintendent Ramon Cortines and its general counsel David Holmquist in Superior Court on Thursday.
"This is a lawsuit brought by internationally renowned and award-winning teacher Rafe Esquith against defendants ... for defamation of character, theft of approximately $100,000 worth of musical instruments and works of literature, and intentional infliction of emotional distress that left Mr. Esquith hospitalized with stress-induced thrombosis," the complaint states.
Esquith says he has been teaching since 1984 at the Hobart Boulevard Elementary School, in his "now-legendary Room 56."
His awards include the National Medal of Arts, the Disney National Outstanding Teacher of the Year, Oprah Winfrey's $100,000 "Use Your Life" award, and being made an honorary member of the Order of the British Empire, according to the complaint. He's also written books on education (Including "Teach Like Your Hair Is on Fire") and founded the Hobart Shakespeareans, a nonprofit afterschool organization that provides music and arts education to underprivileged children.
Hobart Elementary, the largest elementary school in the country, is in central Los Angeles between Koreatown and Westlake, the two highest-density communities in the city. Both are ethnically diverse areas with large Latino and Asian populations and median household incomes at or below the poverty line. Many of the school's 2,000 students are first-generation Americans and most come from poor families.
Esquith claims LAUSD launched a campaign to defame him and oust him from his classroom because of his high-profile opposition to its pro-corporation agenda, such as the failed "iPad for every student" initiative.
He claims it all started in March this year, when a staff member filed a "bizarre complaint" accusing him of making an inappropriate joke about nudity in front of his students.
After being called to the principal's office, Esquith says, he explained that the joke was a selection from Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," which the students had read. He told the class that if they did not receive enough donations for their annual Shakespeare play they would "all have to play the role of the king in Huckleberry Finn."
In "Huck Finn," a fraudulent king and duke gull a town by charging to see them dance around onstage, and painted in bright-colored rings. The complaint does not identify the principal, whom it says was abruptly transferred out of the school, or the person who initially complained about Esquith.
Esquith claims that the principal told him the district was pressuring him to solicit a written apology from Esquith, and that "LAUSD assured him that 'nothing bad was going to happen,' but that LAUSD nevertheless wanted Mr. Esquith to sign a written apology acknowledging that his statements might be viewed as 'serious' and may have made 'others uncomfortable.'"
Esquith says he knew he did nothing wrong, but "did what any reasonable teacher in his position would do," and wrote an apology, which is quoted in the complaint.
He was abruptly sent to "teacher jail," officially known as the Educational Service Center-East.