Rafe Esquith is an American teacher who taught at Hobart Boulevard Elementary School, in Los Angeles, California, from 1984 until his resignation in 2015 as a settlement with the LAUSD.
Many of his students, who were all from a community of poor and immigrant families, were described to start classes very early, leave the school late, and typically achieve high scores in standardized tests.
Esquith has authored books about teaching and conducted his annual class Shakespeare productions, which were featured in the 2005 documentary The Hobart Shakespeareans.
According to a 2005 report on National Public Radio, 90 percent of his students were living below the poverty level, and all were from immigrant families, with none of them speaking English as a first language.
Geragos says that while the district has not clearly outlined the allegations against Esquith, after an "'initial' investigation was found to be meritless, LAUSD has taken it upon itself to manufacture new ways to defame his client.
"[2][3] They later revealed that the investigation had been expanded, including the allegations of sexual abuse of a student in the 1970s who was 8 or 9 at the time, when Esquith was a teenager and employed with an afterschool program at Westside Jewish Community Center.