Here's a way to bake this functionality right into all DOM elements:
HTMLElement.prototype.removeClass = function(remove) {
var newClassName = "";
var i;
var classes = this.className.split(" ");
for(i = 0; i < classes.length; i++) {
if(classes[i] !== remove) {
newClassName += classes[i] + " ";
}
}
this.className = newClassName;
}