Supporters of suspended teacher Rafe Esquith urged the Los Angeles Board of Education at its Tuesday meeting to reinstate the popular and nationally respected instructor.
Esquith was pulled from the classroom in April pending the results of an internal, confidential investigation. Esquith and his attorney told The Times that the probe started after a teacher overheard and reported a joke Esquith made about nudity to his fifth-grade students at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in Koreatown.
The inquiry subsequently moved into other areas, including Esquith’s nonprofit foundation, the Hobart Shakespeareans.
Esquith “made a joke to his students … that’s out of the norm,” said Craig Foster, a board member for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.