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, Bryson Aiona Aka, who is also named as a defendant in the suit, told Civil Beat he was simply trying to protect his daughter from Ramboyon.

“My initial complaint wasn’t for him to actually lose his job, it was to be the voice for my children,” Aiona Aka said. “Whatever the DOE decided to do, that was on them.” 

DOE communications director Nanea Ching said the department cannot comment on the settlement. Toni Schwartz, public information officer for the Attorney General’s Office, said it doesn’t constitute an admission of wrongdoing by the state.

Ted Hong, Ramboyon’s lawyer, said the lawsuit against DOE and Aiona Aka will be dismissed. The settlement also resolves a grievance Ramboyon filed through the state teachers union accusing DOE of wrongfully firing him.

Allegation Stemmed From Incident At The Beach

Ramboyon began working in Hawaiʻi schools in 1994 and spent most of his career as a teacher at Waiākea Intermediate. 

The problems started in February 2018, when the Hawaiʻi Police Department arrested Ramboyon in response to an unnamed bystander’s complaint that he had hit a girl — the daughter of Aiona Aka and Ramboyon’s girlfriend at the time — at the beach. 

Doctors treated the girl for a bruise on her eye and physical assault, according to a Child Welfare Services report shared with Civil Beat by Aiona Aka. 

In an interview with Civil Beat, Ramboyon said his girlfriend’s two daughters had been fighting and that when he tried to break it up, one of them falsely accused him of punching her.  

The next day, Aiona Aka called Waiākea Intermediate and said Ramboyon had hit one of his daughters, according to the lawsuit. 

The school placed Ramboyon on leave soon after, and the principal told staffers he had been arrested and charged with two counts of abuse, according to the lawsuit. However, Ramboyon was never charged with a crime, according to the lawsuit and the police department. 

Ramboyon claims in his lawsuit that the principal defamed him by falsely telling staff he had been charged with abuse. 

“Everything was just fabricated,” Ramboyon said in an interview with Civil Beat. In the lawsuit, he claims that Aiona Aka falsely accused him because he was angry about Ramboyon’s relationship with his ex-wife. Aiona Aka told Civil Beat that wasn’t true. 

Fired A Year Later

Ramboyon resumed work in the summer of 2018 and eventually returned to the classroom, according to the lawsuit. He remained there until he was fired in August 2019. 

According to the lawsuit, DOE concluded that Ramboyon posed a threat to children, citing Aiona Aka’s allegation as well as an assault conviction from 1988 involving a fight between Ramboyon and another surfer. 

Ramboyon claims in the lawsuit that the conviction, which occurred when he was in college, didn’t have anything to do with his suitability to work at the school years later. And, he claims, he disclosed the conviction when he applied to work as a teacher in 1994.

Hong said the department used the conviction as an excuse to fire him. “It was a low-hanging fruit,” he said.

Ching, the DOE spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that the department takes into account any prior offenses when determining whether its employees can safely work in schools. 

In 2021, Ramboyon’s former girlfriend, with whom he had a child, filed for a restraining order and accused him of domestic and psychological abuse. A judge issued an order last year preventing Ramboyon from contacting her and her children from a previous marriage. In an interview with Civil Beat, Ramboyon denied any abuse.

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.