The Department of Education concluded the teacher posed a threat to children due to the allegation and a prior assault conviction.
Hawaiʻi is set to pay $140,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a former Big Island teacher who claims the state education department defamed and wrongfully fired him in 2019 after he was accused of child abuse.
The settlement is one of 38 claims costing taxpayers more than $8.4 million, all approved through an appropriation bill passed last month and signed by Gov. Josh Green. Claims against the Department of Education make up $2.6 million of that, the most of any state agency.
In the lawsuit, former teacher Leonard Ramboyon claims that the ex-husband of the woman he was dating at the time called Ramboyon’s school in 2018 and accused him of child abuse. Ramboyon claims in the suit that the ex-husband did that to “punish and humiliate” him.
The education department fired Ramboyon from Waiākea Intermediate School in 2019 after determining he was unfit to work with children. That decision was based on the child abuse allegation and a 30-year-old assault conviction, according to the lawsuit.
Ramboyon claims in the lawsuit, filed in 2020, that being fired not only ended his career, it harmed his reputation. Since then, he’s suffered from anxiety and depression, according to the suit.
In a court filing, the education department denied that its staff defamed Ramboyon or had reason to believe the allegation against him wasn’t credible.
The ex-husband,...
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