The entire teaching
staff has been suspended at Miramonte elementary school in Los Angeles, where
two teachers have been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing children.
The Los Angeles school
superintendent, John Deasy, announced the extraordinary move, telling parents
that replacement teachers would be taking over classrooms and psychiatric
social workers would be placed with each class to help students and staff.
Miramonte teacher Mark
Berndt was charged last week with committing lewd acts on 23 children, while
Martin Springer was arrested on Friday suspected of abusing two girls in his
classroom.
Berndt, who worked at
the school for 32 years, abused children of ages six to 10 between 2005 and
2010, it is alleged. The acts cited by authorities include blindfolding
children in a classroom and feeding them his semen in what children were
allegedly told was a tasting game.
Berndt, 61, remains
jailed on $23m (£14m) bail and could face life in prison if convicted.
Springer, 49, is being held on $2m bail.
Springer taught at
Miramonte for his entire career, which started in 1986, the district said. He
taught second grade. The school board is scheduled to discuss firing him in a
closed-door meeting on Tuesday.
Investigators said
they knew of no connection between the Miramonte cases, though the Los Angeles
Times said Berndt and Springer knew each other and had taken their classes on
at least two joint field trips in the past decade.
More than a quarter of
the students at Miramonte were absent on Monday while parents demanded more
protection at the school.
About three dozen
parents and supporters protested in front of the main doors of the school, some
carrying a banner that read: "We the parents demand our children be
protected from lewd teacher acts."
Maria Jimenez, 51,
said the parents whose children are enrolled at Miramonte were divided over the
removal of the entire staff. "Some are in favour. Others are against it
because they did this without advising us or consulting us," Jimenez said.
This on top of the
strange tale of teacher suicide Rigoberto Ruelas in Sept 2010 at the same heavily Hispanic Miramonte school resulting from the Los Angeles Times printing teacher ratings at its news site.
What ratings did the two pervs arrested have?
And is California’s definition of ”lewd behavior toward
children” an obsolete 18th terminology like the recent sex abuse
scandal at Penn State University?
.
