Teachers Suits

For several years, Brian McMahon has waged a pitched battle against his former employer, El Camino College in Torrance, which he says retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on a handful of phantom students who were enrolled in classes threatened with closure because of dwindling enrollment. The community college has never confirmed or denied that there were bogus students in the classroom during the late 1980s and early 1990s, said college spokeswoman Mary Ann Keating.

Attorneys for the Cupertino Union School District asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by an "orthodox Christian" fifth-grade teacher who argued that he has a 1st Amendment right to give students handouts about the American founders' religious beliefs.

It was never about money, Sheila Hopper says. The special education teacher says she filed her federal lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of thousands of learning-disabled students--students such as 10-year-old Evangelina at Nestle Avenue Elementary School in Tarzana. A fifth-grader when Hopper met her, the girl could not spell her own name, let alone read. But regardless of how it began, federal case No.

A Superior Court jury Friday ordered the Los Angeles Unified School District to pay $425,000 to a former Locke High School teacher who said her 1st Amendment rights were violated after she refused to allow her students to be searched for weapons. Ami Motevalli, 32, who taught art under a one-year contract at the South-Central Los Angeles campus, charged that she was not rehired because she spoke out against random searches of students using hand-held metal detectors.

Ruling Due on TMI Receivership: A ruling is expected today on whether a receiver will be appointed to take over operations of Teachers Management & Investment Corp., the Newport Beach firm that raised $1 billion from educators throughout California. A lawsuit filed in August by four teachers alleges that the company is insolvent and seeks appointment of a receiver for its remaining assets. The teachers also allege that the company lost $100 million of investors' money through fraud.

Attorneys for the Capistrano Unified School District and high school teacher John Peloza presented oral arguments on Monday to a federal judge who will rule on whether Peloza should pay more than $30,000 in court costs and expenses the district incurred fighting his lawsuit.

It had all the makings of an all-out political war, one that would have been fought across California, and possibly into the early presidential campaign states of Iowa and New Hampshire. The public schools lobby, among the most powerful state Capitol warriors, was prepared to lead an advertising attack aimed at Republican presidential candidate Gov. Pete Wilson.

The Capistrano Unified School District has agreed to correct civil rights violations and provide $12,000 in back pay to a veteran high school teacher who says she was harassed and discriminated against by top administrators for almost a decade. In a closed-door session, the school board voted to settle a bitterly contested age and sex discrimination complaint brought by Ruth Geis, 64, an award-winning San Clemente High English instructor with more than 30 years in the classroom.

A judge Thursday dismissed a suit brought by a San Juan Capistrano biology teacher, a born-again Christian, who claimed the school district was forcing him to teach evolution as a religion. John Peloza sued after the district reprimanded him for teaching creationism in his science class.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has denied a bid by Teachers Management & Investment Corp., the Newport Beach company that raised about $1 billion from California teachers, to move a lawsuit filed against the company, an attorney said Monday. On Aug. 23, four teachers sued TMI in Orange County Superior Court alleging that the company lost $100 million in investor funds through fraud and racketeering.

WASHINGTON STATE The sexual relationship between sixth-grade teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and one of her students could not have been prevented by the school district or local police, a civil jury ruled in Kent, Wash. Letourneau was 34 and former student Vili Fualaau was 12 when the relationship began in the spring of 1996. Letourneau gave birth to two daughters fathered by Fualaau and was sentenced to seven years in prison for child rape.

A San Mateo County high school teacher failed to convince a jury that two other teachers had sexually harassed her because she is a lesbian. In a 9-3 vote, the jury found that the two teachers did not harass Teresa "Tere" Curl. She was fired from Menlo-Atherton High School in March 2000 after teacher Alan Ida discovered a gun in Curl's classroom. Curl, 43, sued Ida and teacher Al Ramirez, along with the Sequoia Union High School District, for harassment after the incident.

The West Covina school board has settled a teacher's lawsuit accusing a board member of leaning on school administrators to change two grades for his son. The settlement reinstates the C and the citizenship grade of U (unsatisfactory) given by the Edgewood Middle School teacher to board member George Fuller's son. Those grades, for a computer course, had been upgraded to B and N (needs improvement).

A jury has awarded $486,158 to a former teacher who sued administrators for firing him after he complained about understaffing at a county-run school. Robert LeVine, 50, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit three years ago after he was dismissed for not reporting for work for several days. The lawsuit accuses the Ventura County superintendent of schools office and four administrators, including Supt.

A Ventura County jury began hearing testimony Tuesday in a 3-year-old wrongful-termination case brought by a former teacher who charged he was fired for complaining about understaffing at a county-run school. Robert LeVine sued the Ventura County superintendent of schools office and four administrators in August 1996 after he was fired for allegedly failing to show up for work. The previous year, he had raised concerns about staffing levels at the McBride School at Ventura County Juvenile Hall.

A former teacher who claimed he was wrongfully terminated for complaining about understaffing at a county-run school for incarcerated teenagers has had his lawsuit reinstated. Robert LeVine sued the Ventura County superintendent of schools office in 1996 after he was fired for allegedly failing to show up for work. The previous year he had raised concerns about staffing levels at the McBride School at Ventura County Juvenile Hall.

The West Covina school board has settled a teacher's lawsuit accusing a board member of leaning on school administrators to change two grades for his son. The settlement reinstates the C and the citizenship grade of U (unsatisfactory) given by the Edgewood Middle School teacher to board member George Fuller's son. Those grades, for a computer course, had been upgraded to B and N (needs improvement).

When Brian McMahon received tenure in El Camino Community College's auto collision repair department, the first thing he wanted to do was come clean. For nearly five years, McMahon said, he had been directed by several administrators to give passing grades to "phantom" students who were either not enrolled or never showed up for his class after registering. Specifically, he says that the dean of industry and technology told him to "enroll your mother if you have to."

Lawyers asked a federal judge in Salt Lake City to dismiss a lesbian teacher's lawsuit in which she challenges a school gag order banning her from talking about her sexual orientation. The Utah attorney general's office argued that Wendy Weaver's comments regarding her lesbianism are not protected by the 1st Amendment.

For several years, Brian McMahon has waged a pitched battle against his former employer, El Camino College in Torrance, which he says retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on a handful of phantom students who were enrolled in classes threatened with closure because of dwindling enrollment. The community college has never confirmed or denied that there were bogus students in the classroom during the late 1980s and early 1990s, said college spokeswoman Mary Ann Keating.