Dozens Molested at LA Elementary School

[jimmy olsen]

Just terrible 

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/06/10332533-entire-staff-to-be-replaced-at-la-school-where-2-teachers-were-arrested

Updated at 12:54 a.m. ET: The Los Angeles Unified School District is replacing the entire staff of Miramonte Elementary following the arrest of two teachers on lewd conduct charges last week, Superintendent John Deasy told parents at a meeting Monday night, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Positions will be filled by qualified teachers and other workers already on a placement or rehiring list, the Times report stated. But the displacement of the current staff could be temporary, according to the report.

Teacher Mark Berndt was charged last week with committing lewd acts on 23 children. Another teacher, Martin Springer, was arrested Friday on suspicion of fondling two girls in his classroom.
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Deasy said staffers are being replaced because a full investigation of allegations is disruptive, and staffers require support to get through the scandal.

All employees will be paid during the investigation, district spokesman Tom Waldman said. Officials didn't know how long the investigation will take.

There will also be a psychiatric social worker in every classroom to help students and staff cope with any issues that need to be dealt with.

United Teachers Los Angeles said in a statement that union leaders and staff have met with instructors at Miramonte.

"We support a thorough, vigorous and fair investigation of all allegations," the statement said. "It's everyone's responsibility to ensure that any and all allegations are thoughtfully and carefully investigated."

Maria Jimenez, 51, said the parents of children enrolled at Miramonte are divided over the move. "Some are in favor. Others are against it because they did this without advising us or consulting us," she said.

Many children stayed home Monday while parents demanded more protection at an elementary school where two teachers are suspected of molesting students in class.

More than a quarter of the students at Miramonte Elementary School were absent, with attendance reaching just 72 percent, according to figures from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Updated at 12:54 a.m. ET: The Los Angeles Unified School District is replacing the entire staff of Miramonte Elementary following the arrest of two teachers on lewd conduct charges last week, Superintendent John Deasy told parents at a meeting Monday night, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Positions will be filled by qualified teachers and other workers already on a placement or rehiring list, the Times report stated. But the displacement of the current staff could be temporary, according to the report.

Teacher Mark Berndt was charged last week with committing lewd acts on 23 children. Another teacher, Martin Springer, was arrested Friday on suspicion of fondling two girls in his classroom.
advertisement

Deasy said staffers are being replaced because a full investigation of allegations is disruptive, and staffers require support to get through the scandal.

All employees will be paid during the investigation, district spokesman Tom Waldman said. Officials didn't know how long the investigation will take.

There will also be a psychiatric social worker in every classroom to help students and staff cope with any issues that need to be dealt with.

United Teachers Los Angeles said in a statement that union leaders and staff have met with instructors at Miramonte.

"We support a thorough, vigorous and fair investigation of all allegations," the statement said. "It's everyone's responsibility to ensure that any and all allegations are thoughtfully and carefully investigated."

Maria Jimenez, 51, said the parents of children enrolled at Miramonte are divided over the move. "Some are in favor. Others are against it because they did this without advising us or consulting us," she said.

Many children stayed home Monday while parents demanded more protection at an elementary school where two teachers are suspected of molesting students in class.

More than a quarter of the students at Miramonte Elementary School were absent, with attendance reaching just 72 percent, according to figures from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

About three dozen parents and supporters protested in front of the main doors of the school earlier Monday, some carrying a banner that read, "We the parents demand our children be protected from lewd teacher acts."

As night fell, about 100 angry parents marched from the elementary school to the nearby meeting with administrators.

School police watched and sheriff's deputies were on hand, but there was no violence.

The district set up a toll-free hotline on Monday to receive reports of suspected abuse at Miramonte, said school board President Monica Garcia in a statement.

Garcia added that the district would step up efforts to ensure students and staff realized the importance of reporting misconduct.

In the same school district, a janitor at a San Fernando Valley elementary school was arrested on suspicion of committing a lewd act with a child on a campus.

Paul Adame, 37, was taken into custody after a mother told police on Sunday that he had inappropriate contact with her child during school hours Friday at Germain Elementary School in the Chatsworth area north of Los Angeles, police Capt. Kris Pitcher said at a news conference.
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The captain declined to provide details but urged anyone who might know of other possible victims to contact police.

Adame was booked and released on $100,000 bail Monday. It could not be immediately determined if he had an attorney.

There was no immediate connection between the arrest of the janitor and the cases at Miramonte, which is 15 miles away in an unincorporated county area of South Los Angeles.

[Martinus]

There was a story about another teacher (with about 30 years of tenure) recently, who apparently bound and gagged kids in the classroom for some sort of a "game", and then subsequently fed them what seemed like cum by a spoonfull, put cockroaches on their faces and taped the process.

Now that's creative, not some run of the mill molester.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Guess it takes a Pole or German to come up with that kind of 'fun'.

[Martinus]

The guy was an American. 

[Eddie Teach]

Male teachers tend to be perverts, this isn't news.

[Phillip V]

We usually know nothing about who teachers really are, but yet happily hand over our children to these strangers for "education" most hours out of the day.

[Camerus]

Heh, I never would've guessed Languish misanthropes would start acting hysterical over this story.

[Razgovory]

At least they were being labeled Catholics.

[Eddie Teach]

Heh, I never would've guessed Languish misanthropes would start acting hysterical over this story.

The way you phrased this sentence sounds like Languish misanthropes *did* act hysterical over this story. Was there another thread?

[DGuller]

We usually know nothing about who teachers really are, but yet happily hand over our children to these strangers for "education" most hours out of the day.

I'm not sure where you're going with this, or what point you're trying to make.

[sbr]

We usually know nothing about who teachers really are, but yet happily hand over our children to these strangers for "education" most hours out of the day.

I'm not sure where you're going with this, or what point you're trying to make.

Homeschooling is the way of the future. 

[Ed Anger]

We usually know nothing about who teachers really are, but yet happily hand over our children to these strangers for "education" most hours out of the day.

I'm not sure where you're going with this, or what point you're trying to make.

Homeschooling is the way of the future. 

Teach your kids to ride, to shoot a bow and never tell a lie.

[Phillip V]

[Martinus]

People who even consider homeschooling their children should be shot in the head. I have never met a well adjusted individual who was homeschooled.

[Caliga]

How many homeschooled people have you met? I'm not sure I've met any, personally.