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Entire Staff Of Miramonte Elementary School To Be Replaced

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SOUTH LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The entire staff of Miramonte Elementary School will be replaced when the school reopens Thursday, says LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy.

The announcement, made at a meeting Monday between officials and parents of the school’s students, comes amidst an investigation into multiple allegations of sex abuse taking place on school grounds.

Police informed members of the media they would not be allowed inside Monday night’s meeting per the school district. However, KNX’s Claudia Peschiutta was able to make her way into the standing room only auditorium and shared details from inside.

Deasy told parents the faculty and staff will be reassigned to a site that does not host students, and that many or all may return as the investigation is completed.

In the interim, each classroom will be staffed with a psychiatric social worker.

Deasy says the school district plans to interview every student who has attended the school and every adult who has worked at the school.

The investigation, he says, will be overseen by an independent commission chaired by a former California Supreme Court associate justice.

It was announced Monday that Miramonte would be closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

Parents staged a protest Monday morning at the South Los Angeles elementary school where two teachers were arrested last week on suspicion of several bizarre sex crimes.

Peschiutta said parents at Monday night’s meeting were given a briefing by an LA County Sheriff’s Department lieutenant. He explained the months-long investigation process delayed notification to parents, as police did not want to taint potential victims and witnesses by making information public.

Parents were assured however that Mark Berndt, a 30-year Los Angeles Unified School District veteran, was removed from the classroom as soon as the alleged crimes were discovered.

Berndt was arrested Jan. 30 and charged with 23 counts of lewd acts on a child. He was removed from the classroom one year prior.

Berndt, 61, reportedly took an estimated 300 photos of students bound, gagged and blindfolded in his classroom between 2008 and 2010. Some photos show cockroaches being placed on the students’ faces. Others are being fed a milky-white substance on a spoon that officials say tested positive for the teacher’s DNA.

Fellow Miramonte teacher Martin Springer, 49, was arrested Friday after two of his former students told police they were fondled in his classroom.

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  • Jose

    AABSURD. You are ruining the careers of some innocent people.

  • duh

    Wow… just WOW… there are probably vastly more excellent and dedicated teachers there, versus predators, who are now tarnished forever. Talk about tossing the baby out with the bath water! Expect EPIC lawsuits. LAUSD could easily be bankrupted over this in a few years. How on EARTH can they possibly guarantee that all of the replacement staff are somehow ‘safer’ than the outgoing staff as a whole? Crazy.

  • boyle Heights Baby

    This is SO wrong. I hope those teachers sue the pants off the district. I am in shock over what LAUSD has done.

  • fastfreddie

    knee jerk reaction, amazing.

  • David V

    Damn, I’m glad I have no kids. To each and everyone of yous, how would you react if your child was one the innocent that was caught by this BEAST? What would you do…? If it was your child in one of those disgusting pictures? What would you DO?

  • http://www.thecitymaven.com/2012/02/07/mavens-morning-coffee-184/ Maven’s Morning Coffee

    [...] Though it was closed to media, KNX 1070 reporter Claudia Peschiutta got inside a meeting between LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and parents at Miramonte Elementary School. The superintendent told parents that the school’s entire staff would temporarily be let go, Peschiutta told KCAL 9. [...]

  • Christopher Koulouris

    Of interesting note is that the incidents took place in a predominantly poor Latino neighborhood, where many students and pupils struggle with English. It has been suggested that the preponderance of Latino students and families may have preempted school authorities not to have acted affirmatively when the crises first came to the fore- if true, it poses a serious questioning of the attitudes towards those parts of the population who are often perceived with negatively.

    So much for equal education for all you may wonder…

    http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2012/02/los-angeles-school-superintendent-suspends-entire-faculty-after-school-teachers-caught-sexually-abusing-children/

  • Feifan Chang

    Education for all is the right of every one.
    The education is the basic key for the development of any nation / country .
    With out education no revolution can be successful to build the nation.

  • JOHN WALSH

    MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA IS MAKING ALL THE MIRAMONTE DECISIONS USING HIS HANDPICKED SUPERINTENDENT DEASY LIKE A VENTRILOUIST DUMMY..MONICA GARCIA SHOULD RESIGN AS SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENTNOW..

    THE INNOCENT MIRAMONTE TEACHERS HAVE.BEEN HERDED INTO A NEWLY-BUILT LAUSD SCHOOL THAT HAS NOT OPENED YET.
    UTLA PRESIDENT HAS SOLD US OUT HIS FELLOW UNION TEACHERS.

    JOHN WALSH LAUSD TEACHER 25 YEARS

  • http://propertycloud.co.za/2012/02/entire-staff-of-miramonte-elementary-school-to-be-replaced/ Entire Staff Of Miramonte Elementary School To Be Replaced – Property Cloud

    [...] Read the full story and more. [...]

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