The College Fix

Back on the June 21 The Fix reported on the case of Rafe Esquith, an award-winning teacher in the LA Unified School District.

Esquith was taken out of his classroom following a complaint by a fellow teacher over a joke he made referencing a passage from the classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

(The original story by The LA Times on which The Fix reported makes no reference to the allegedly inappropriate joke, just a supposedly inappropriate passage from the book.)

Now, the district’s investigation has turned up a claim from a decade ago, alleging that Esquith had abused a boy in the 1970s at an after-school program.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

This week, L.A. Unified investigators interviewed a man who alleged that Esquith physically and sexually abused him in the 1970s.

David Holmquist, the district’s general counsel, said the allegations by the man, Marc Bennett, are “part of the overall investigation.”

In an interview with The Times on Thursday, Bennett, 49, said that when he was 8 or 9, he attended an after-school program at the Westside Jewish Community Center, where Esquith was employed. Esquith’s attorneys confirmed that he worked at the center.

Bennett, who lives in New York City, described three alleged incidents involving Esquith.

“At that point in my life my parents had been divorced. Rafe was charismatic and I looked up to him a bit as kind of a father figure,” Bennett said. “I had a fair amount of adoration for him, but it was this really weird thing where it was full of humiliation and a lot of fear. It was very chaotic.”

Bennett said he didn’t report the alleged abuse at the time. About a decade ago, he said he learned of Esquith’s nonprofit work with young children and contacted law enforcement authorities. He also sent a letter describing what he’d been through to an L.A. Unified board member. He couldn’t remember the board member’s name, but he said that district investigators who called him this week said they had found the letter and asked him to recount his story.

“My hope is that this would inspire other people to come forward if there are others who have had my experience,” Bennett said.

What exactly does it mean when Bennett says his relationship with Esquith was “full of humiliation and a lot of fear” and “was very chaotic”?

According to an interview document, Esquith was asked “Were you ever counseled for pushing someone when you were a camp counselor at the JCC Jewish Center Summer Camp you worked at when you were a teenager 40 years ago?”

The Times notes Esquith answered “no,” and that it is “unclear” if the question is related to Bennett’s accusations.

But … pushing? Even if the allegations are true, consider that Esquith was about twenty years of age at the time. And in exactly what context did the pushing take place? If it was, say, in a coaching situation, how uncommon was it, especially forty years ago, for players to be grabbed and/or shoved by their coaches during practices or games … especially if they did something wrong?

Esquith’s attorney Mark Geragos says “the allegations were an attempt to smear the teacher.”

Read the full article.

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