Teacher Says He Was Fired for Writing a Book

[The Straight Story]

Teacher Says He Was Fired for Writing a Book

CHICAGO (CN) - A public school teacher whose book was published by the University of Chicago Press claims he was fired because a "student's mother took issue with 'Gabriel's Fire,' a memoir about plaintiff growing up as a Mexican immigrant youth, and particularly, with a section of the book describing a relationship plaintiff had twenty years earlier."

Luis Aguilera sued the Chicago Public Schools and the Board of Education, in Federal Court. Aguilera taught Spanish from August 2007 until he was fired on Dec. 28, 2009. His book, "Gabriel's Fire," was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2000.

Aguilera says he was fired after "a series of unusual and untoward events."

"On January 20, 2009, an unannounced and unscheduled parent-teacher-administrative conference was convened by Aguilera's principal, Latunja O. Williams, an agent and employee of the Board," the complaint states.

"The conference was attended by Principal Williams, Aguilera, the Assistant Principal, Leonard Harris, also an agent and employee of the board, and the parent of a student in one of Aguilera's classes. During the conference, the parent of the student raised non-specific, unsubstantiated 'concerns' over the relationship between Aguilera and the daughter. These alleged 'concerns' arose out of the parent's dislike for a published book written by Aguilera called 'Gabriel's Fire' (The University of Chicago Press, 2000). At the onset of the conference, Principal Williams had related that the student's mother took issue with 'Gabriel's Fire,' a memoir about plaintiff growing up as a Mexican immigrant youth, and particularly, with a section of the book describing a relationship plaintiff had twenty years earlier.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/03/42712.htm

[baldguy]

1. And people wonder why we need strong unions for teachers - and for workers in general.

[MADem]

2. School (sorta) says he was fired for an inappropriate relationship with a student.

At least that's what I'm getting out of the link.

To which, the plaintiff appears to be saying "You didn't give me any specifics, you fired me without due process, you didn't fill out the form properly."

I'm sure more will come out at trial.

Hard to know what the deal is here, without more information. I found a news article by our 'friends' at Fox, this is what it says: http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/education/gabriels-fire-chicago-spanish-teacher-luis-aguilera-cps-fired-lawsuit-memoir-affair-20120103

...The parent had broached what the suit dismisses as a baseless concern about a relationship between her daughter and Luis Aguilera. It says the mother's anxiety appeared directly linked to the content of the book.

Aguilera's memoir is about his coming of age on Chicago's South Side, where at 13, he "began an affair with one of the teachers at the local elementary school," according to a description of the book on website of the publisher, The University of Chicago Press.

...The lawsuit claims an official report before his firing alleged unspecified, "inappropriate" comments made by Aguilera to the student. The filing does not describe the alleged comments, but it denies wrongdoing by Aguilera.

[The Straight Story]

3. It is kind of convoluted, but

At the end of the article there is a little piece of paper which is a link to the actual filing.

Here is a direct link (one bad thing about that site is they just put that little piece of paper there with no real explanation)

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/03/GabrielsFire.pdf

[MADem]

4. Permit me to indulge in total speculation here.

I see this bit of your link, and it gets me wondering:

Plaintiff was told by CPS Senior Assistant General Counsel, James Ciesel, that Plaintiff was transferred because he was trying to have an “adult relationship” with a student, which was completely untrue.
14. Plaintiff was later questioned by a part-time investigator for CPS who inquired about Gabriel’s Fire and whether Plaintiff had given the book to the student in question.

This is the just teacher's side talking--we've yet to hear from the other team. My mind wonders if the administration wasn't giving the guy an "out," to be fired for generic reasons, rather than have to get down-and-dirty and say "Hey, you were trying to screw a student," and the teacher didn't take the hint.

I don't know what the rules of evidence are in his neck of the woods, but he'd better make sure that the student in question doesn't have an autographed copy of that guy's book, and that his Facebook, Twitter, and email accounts don't have any communication from that child in them--pr the kid's mom was able to capture any communications going in the other direction.

Now, OTOH, the mother of the kid could be engaging in speculation herself, she could be making stuff up, and she could have her own agenda....but it's impossible to know from these few links what is really going on. I just can't imagine a school getting rid of a teacher based on a single accusation without substance by a single parent. One has to then ask, is there a pattern of behavior here? Is this the straw that broke the camel's back? Does the school or the parent have evidence against this guy that he's not yet aware of?

Hopefully he has a very good lawyer and he'll get his day in court. I can't get up on a soapbox for him, though--on the one hand, he's completely entitled to the presumption of innocence; on the other, where there's smoke there is sometimes fire--it just does not make sense to me that the school would fire him for no good reason. Granted, workplace politics and personal tiffs sometimes make their way into these issues, hopefully if that is the case, they'll come out.