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Los Angeles Schools Superintendent To Remove All Teachers From School Amid Sex Investigation
From Betsy Combier: Of course all the teachers at Miramonte School in L.A. were replaced. After years of ignoring parent complaints and teachers questions the Superintendent could not take the chance that someone else would come forward with evidence of wrong-doing and a cover-up by school administrators.
          
L.A. to remove all teachers from school amid sex investigation
LA Times, February 7, 2012
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L.A. school officials are hoping their decision to temporarily replace the entire staff of an elementary school where two teachers have been accused of lewd acts against students will help quell growing anger by parents.

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. John Deasy announced the changes at a parents meeting Monday night. The meeting was tense at times, with some parents chanting "cover-up" and accusing the school system of failing to protect their children.

Some parents said they were alarmed by reports that students had complained about one of the accused teachers several times in the last two decades.

FULL COVERAGE: Teacher sex scandal

"My trust level is at zero," Cassini Quarles, the mother of a third-grader, said outside the meeting, which was held at a nearby high school.

"I cannot have another student tell me he is afraid," Deasy told parents at the meeting.

At a news conference a few minutes later, he added: "The primary responsibility, bar none, is safety for our students. Clearly, several instructors have violated the most sacred trust we have."
When pressed about his personal reaction to the case, Deasy said he was disgusted by the allegations, and that his focus now was on trying to figure out how a "culture of silence" could have existed at Miramonte "where someone could have known something and then chose not to act."

"How is it conceivably possible that this could take place ... and [administrators] didn't know or say anything is what I'm trying to understand," he said. "And of course, I recognize that I'm trying to do it from a very far distance."

The staffing shake-up marks a bid to rebuild quickly eroding community confidence as detectives and school officials continue their investigations. More than a quarter of the students enrolled at Miramonte were kept home by their parents Monday.

But Monday night, some parents applauded the removal of the school's staff as a good first step. Officials stressed that no other educators at the school are under suspicion, but they said a bold act was needed to help remove the cloud over Miramonte.

The school has 150 teachers and administrators and about 1,500 students. The move could be temporary -- many, maybe all, of the current staff will be returned to the school eventually, officials said. In the interim, their places will be filled by teachers and other workers already on a rehiring list.

The Miramonte staff will continue to be paid and for the time being will move to a nearby campus under construction, officials said. Miramonte will be closed for the next two days during the transition.

Officials plan to have the new teachers and administrators in place by Thursday. When students return, each will be interviewed by the district, and a psychiatric social worker will be present in every classroom, Deasy said.

Parents applaud removal of all teachers at troubled L.A. school
February 6, 2012 | 9:39 pm

Accused teacher gave alleged victim presents, pictures
LA Times, February 6, 2012
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Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt gave presents to one of his alleged victims, visited her home and even gave the children photos of them blindfolded and gagged – the same type of pictures that eventually led to his arrest, attorneys for an alleged victim said.

Attorneys for the girl, who is now 9, filed a $15-million claim against the Los Angeles Unified School District on Monday alleging negligence and violations of the girl's civil rights because the district ignored reports in 1991, 1994 and 2008 about Berndt's conduct. Berndt was arrested last week and charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct.

Attorney Ricardo Antonio Perez said the teacher spoon-fed the girl a white liquid substance authorities now believe to be semen. He said the teacher also fed the girl, who was 8 at the time, semen-laced cookies as part of an unsuspecting game between September and December 2010.

FULL COVERAGE: Miramonte sex-abuse investigation

Perez said the teacher visited the girl when school was out of session.

"He gave her bags of candy and something with an inscription that we don't want to reveal at this moment," Perez said.

"This teacher groomed his students to be victims. … He came to this girl's home in the holidays and gave her gifts," said Gordon Phillips, who is also representing the girl and her family. "That's something no teacher should be doing."

The district's failed oversight allowed the girl to become of the 23 alleged victims named in charges filed by the district attorney's office, said Phillips and Perez, who have sued L.A. Unified in the past.

Perez said he knows of previous complaints against Berndt in 1991 and 1994 "and still he was at the school," Perez said. "There was complete failure of the system."

He alleged that Berndt committed all these acts in plain sight. At the end of the year, he even "pinned the photos to a cork board" for the kids to take home, Perez said. "It was like he was daring someone to catch them," he said.

The girl's parents never suspected anything, he said.

Perez said the girl was interviewed last year by a detective without her parents present. They only recently learned of the investigation when an unnamed detective called, told them about the alleged semen and urged them to take their daughter for medical testing.

"Why did they wait so long to tell the families with the potential for diseases? Perez said. "They should have alerted them as soon as they knew."

Sheriff's officials said DNA testing on evidence was not completed until July and they did not connect it to the teacher until November. They did not publicize the investigation because they feared it might damage witness credibility.

RELATED:

L.A. school to be closed for two days for sex-abuse investigation

Officials trying to 'restore calm' at school where teachers arrested

Attendance drops at school where 2 teachers are suspected of abuse

 
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