Thaindian News

Chicago, Jan 8 (IANS/EFE) A school teacher in Chicago was fired after a student’s mother filed a lawsuit saying the teacher’s memoir spoke of sexual relations he had with a woman and was trying to have the same with her daughter.Spanish teacher Luis Gabriel Aguilera is now suing the Chicago Public Schools for firing him over the content of his memoir, “Gabriel’s Fire”.

Aguilera’s book is about growing up in the “Windy City” and working at the Bronzeville Scholastic Institute from August 2007 till December 2009. The book was published by the University of Chicago Press.

According to the lawsuit filed with a federal court, school principal Latunja O. Williams, her assistant Leonard Harris and the mother of a girl student accused Aguilera of bad conduct.

The mother accused him of trying to have an “adult relationship” with her daughter.

The lawsuit also said the mother’s unhappiness “arose out of her dislike for ‘Gabriel’s Fire’”.

In the book, Aguilera claims to have had sexual relations with a 26-year-old teacher when he was 13.

It tells the story of a young migrant who grew up during the late 1980s and early 1990s in a Polish neighbourhood in south Chicago.

The Bronzeville librarian had reportedly purchased a copy of Aguilera’s book but the vice principal had forbidden lending out the book.

The principal and vice principal asked the teacher if he had given the book to the girl student, which Aguilera denied.

A few days later, Aguilera was fired for unspecified reasons, the suit alleged.

The challenging law suit filed by Aguilera says that his freedom of expression was violated and that he was treated differently from his colleagues.

“My civil rights have been trampled on, my freedom of expression has been walked all over, there has been no due process and they have discriminated against me,” he said.

–IANS/EFE
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