A former La Jolla High School teacher, who was on paid leave for two years, filed a claim against the district seeking $250 in damages to a personal chair left in the classroom.

Emma Zink, a former math teacher at La Jolla High School, was placed on paid administrative leave in October 2014 following an alleged physical altercation with a male student over an electronic device that violated school policy.

At the time, Zink’s annual pay with benefits totaled $119,400. She remained on paid leave until the 2016-2017 school year, when she was reassigned to Thurgood Marshall Middle School in Scripps Ranch.

San Diego Unified School District records, obtained by U-T Watchdog under the California Public Records Act, show Zink filed a claim with the district in September 2016.


The district did not release the original claim, but according to a case summary, Zink requested that the district pay $250 because her “personal desk chair [was] damaged” while she was on paid administrative leave for two years.

Zink did not respond to messages seeking comment about the chair. An employee of San Diego Unified’s risk management department could not determine whether or not the district denied the claim or paid Zink the requested amount.

According to data from Transparent California, an open-government group that collects compensation records from public agencies throughout the state, Zink’s annual pay with benefits increased to $123,800 the same year she filed the claim.

It spiked again in 2017, totaling $128,500, making her annual salary higher than more than 85 percent of all teachers in district payroll records.


Zink has been a district employee for more than 30 years, at least 26 of which were spent at La Jolla High School.

She filed a case against San Diego Unified in 2015 with the California Public Employment Relations Board, a quasi-judicial agency that administers the state’s collective bargaining laws and investigates unfair labor practice charges.

The case accuses the district of harassment and retaliation for exercising rights protected under the state’s Educational Employment Relations Act.

Zink argues, among other things, that the district violated her rights by keeping her on administrative leave during the investigation, preventing her from teaching summer school, and reassigning her to Marshall Middle School when she refused to accept the district’s retirement offer.


According to case records, Zink was first reprimanded in September 2014 for issuing “too many suspension referrals.”

She was placed on paid-leave one month later for allegedly scratching a student while trying to confiscate an electronic device that violated school policy. During the altercation, the student attempted to hit or shove Zink and she tried to hold his arms to avoid being hit.

San Diego Unified also received complaints from parents and teachers about Zink’s teaching methodology and the district added these concerns to its investigation into the incident.

At the same time, groups of students and parents came to Zink’s defense.


An October 2014 article published in the school’s newspaper said hundreds of positive reviews about Zink were posted on RateMyTeachers.com, a website that allows students to review and rate teachers in categories such as easiness, helpfulness, exam difficulty and textbook use.

“These reviews praised Mrs. Zink’s teaching methods and described glowing experiences in her class,” the article said, adding that parents and neighborhood activists had recently met to discuss her possible return to the school.

More than 180 students have rated Zink on the website and 72 percent of them gave her five out of five stars. Her overall rate averages at about 4.49 stars.

“Although Ms. Zink is most definitely one of the strictest teachers at La Jolla High, she is one of the best math teachers I’ve had,” said one review, which was posted four days after Zink’s departure. “The year I had her, I learned so much about both geometry and how to get around in a world that isn’t always going to give you peaches and cream. La Jolla High needs Ms. Zink!”


Zink’s case is still pending with the state’s public employment board. In 2017, board members overturned an earlier decision and said the district’s decision to transfer Zink could be seen as retaliation, especially because a reassignment often carries the stigma of unsatisfactory performance.

She is currently listed as a teacher on Marshall Middle School’s website but district officials could not confirm what classes Zink teaches, if any, in time for publication.


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