Posted on 02/07/2012 2:56:05 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
LOS ANGELES — The entire faculty at Miramonte Elementary School, where two teachers were arrested last week on accusations of child sexual abuse, will be replaced by new teachers this week, the Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent announced Monday night.
Speaking to hundreds of parents at a meeting called to address the crisis at Miramonte, Superintendent John Deasy announced the school would be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and when students returned on Thursday, an entirely new corps of teachers and staff members would have been hired to greet them. All current teachers, administrators and staff members will be moved to a school still under construction for the rest of the school year, where they will be interviewed by school officials and, if necessary, the police.
In addition, a psychiatric social worker will be assigned to every class once the school reopens. Every student in the school district who attended Miramonte will also be interviewed.
Mr. Deasy said he felt a personal responsibility to do two things: help children who were victims, and restore parents’ trust in the school district.
“We have to investigate this,” Mr. Deasy said. “And we don’t want to constantly disrupt education while we do that.”
The crisis at Miramonte began last week, when Mark Berndt, who had taught at the school for three decades, was arrested Tuesday and charged with 23 counts of committing lewd acts upon a child.
As the police investigated the case, allegations against another teacher at the school, Martin Springer, came to light, and he was arrested on Friday, accused of groping two 7-year-olds. On Monday, a janitor at another elementary school in the district was arrested on accusations of molesting a student.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Actually, I kind of like this idea.
Even though most of the people involved are probably innocent, I’ll bet many of them had suspicions about the guilty parties for years. Often the “we protect our own” mentality causes them to shrug their shoulders and say, “not my problem.”
Well guess what - when they get caught, you’re going to get your entire life disrupted, even though you did nothing wrong.
Want to start pointing out the bad apples now?
Is this the case where the complaints were ignored, but finally reported by a drug store photo processing clerk?
Either way, any faculty or staff who blew this off should be held criminally liable, since they are bound BY LAW to report even the suspicion of such. Yet they would report parents for child abuse if a child gets bruised in a football game.
So if your child goes to a different school and suddenly gets a new teacher then should you assume that the teacher is a pervert from Miramonte?
These teachers are all marked. They should all just be placed on administrative leave pending a full investigation. The administrators should all be summarily fired.
For my efforts I was harassed. The guilty parties became principals. This did not happen with just one individual, but two. Ten years separated the incidents. One was male the second a female.
If it was not for tenure, they would have fired me for reporting what I saw, heard and reported. The first to the child's parents, the second to CHIN.
Does this happen everywhere? Are there other people out there with common stories?
The principal actually stated in my evaluation that I didn't know my subject area. (I wrote the state curriculum that year. It was used as a model for the national.) The flames just made this ol gal stronger. However, it did take it's tole on my health.
I wonder if there are students at the school. Or, are they just going to sit around collecting checks from the taxpayers?
Your “sin” was trying to make the chain of command work.
The links above you in that chain wanted those further up to see them as running a smooth ship and not causing problems or work for them (which in turn, made them look good.
That is how turds float to the top and why the bowl never is flushed.
Once the shit hits the fan then counselors and lawyers and taxpayer money can run in and fill the void.
But you already know that.
“Even though most of the people involved are probably innocent”
Of course, I’m sure the guilty perverts will be entitled to hefty severence and retirement pay.
I am not a teacher, but the parent who could see big problems going on.
The administration of the school was not used to dealing with complaints from parents - I think they assumed the socio-economic background of the area made them immune to such examination. It was their practice to dismiss criticism. I went over the head of the principal to the county because it involved the welfare of my child with learning disability and I threatened action against the district.
My children attended a sub-par elementary school, whose principal left for extended lunches with his girl friend. His wife was principal at another area school. He was untouchable because it would be “racist”.
No regular parent advisory committee meetings were ever held to inform them of opportunities for improvements that other county schools were taking advantage of. The PTO vice president was married to the local drug peddler. (She and her husband were white, by the way) I think the principal was taking advantage of that.
I ended up being a troublemaker due to the fact that my oldest child who was in first grade had attention deficit problems, and the experimental “open-concept” 1960s style architecture provided no quiet classroom. The answer from the administration was to put my son in a supply closet with an aide who pronounced ‘ask’ as ‘ax’.
I made waves, and eventually big changes were set in motion for the school (a total rebuild). The untouchable principal kept his job, of course. However, we had to leave the school because of mental anguish caused by the principal. I got my children reassigned to a magnet school for performing arts. Eventually the principal of this school was replaced by a friend of the principal of the other school, and he had a vendetta against us. Thankfully another magnet school opened closer to home and we went there.
One day I heard on the radio that the original principal was found dead in the trunk of a burning car. His secret of cocaine addiction was exposed because of the last place he was seen alive.
I am sure that stories like this are nation wide with the poor excuse of “public” education. What a waste.
What a nightmare.
How much education can be happening in these schools?
If I were a parent, I would demand vouchers for private school.
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