The day Jeremy Taylor’s world turned upside down began unremarkably. He spent it at work, at Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), where he had been teaching for almost two decades. It wasn’t until he had just gotten home that the principal called, with news that ended Taylor’s life as he knew it.
“He told me there had been a complaint from a former student and that he couldn’t go into any more details,” Taylor told me. All he knew, he said, was that he had been put on administrative leave and banished from the school. Was it because he had told his government class earlier that day about a former student who once broke in and tore down the American flag? Or because he had helped unionize the teaching staff? Taylor had no idea.
“I’m not sure I can fully explain what it does to your psyche to sit in the dark with a vague, horrific accusation, but no specifics to latch on,” said Taylor, now 51, from his art-filled home in Oakland, California. He has a graying red beard and horn-rimmed glasses, and speaks carefully with a soft voice.
His last day at work was January 4, 2022. A few weeks later, he told me, his union representative sent the school a “threatening email” demanding that it “stop withholding information.” Finally, Taylor was informed that he had been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a former student. But the school wouldn’t identify the alleged victim, or even say when he or she had attended OSA, which didn’t respond to requests for comment from The Free Press.
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