GUILTY CA - Teacher Mark Berndt charged with molesting 23 children

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SuziQ said:
Accused teacher Mark Berndt was target of investigation in 1994

A female student reported that the Miramonte Elementary teacher had tried to fondle her. Her mother informed school administrators, who notified the Sheriff's Department, but the case was dropped because of insufficient evidence.

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teacher-20120203,0,3367430.story
Click to expand...

In other words, per usual, if they had pursued the 1994 case, a lot of children would have been saved from abuse. Just wonderful.
 
The second teacher has now been arrested and charged with molestation. A third school district "official" has also been implicated, per KFI radio here in L.A.
There will be a news conference today at 1 PM with more details.

The reporter on KFI said the district notified this second teacher that he will be fired next week, thus giving him the opportunity to resign and keep his pension.
Unbelievable.
 
article confirming the arrest

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/03/justice/california-teacher-bondage-photos/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Authorities have arrested another teacher at Los Angeles' Miramonte Elementary School, the same workplace of another teacher who had been charged with 23 felony counts of lewd acts on pupils, authorities said Friday.

Capt. Mike Parker with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said Friday that the second teacher had been removed from the classroom earlier in the day.

The sheriff's department is scheduled to release further information at 1:30 p.m. PT Friday.


More info in the article
 
Wow! Did each teacher know of the others activities? Did they participate together? So many questions going through my head right now.
 
I'm wondering if they just did a sweep and took everyone's school issued computers and found child *advertiser censored* on one...and the 2nd arrest isn't directly related to the first....
 
An answer to my question.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/02/second-teacher-at-la-school-arrested.html

(snip)
The new arrest is unrelated to Berndt, a veteran teacher at the school who was arrested and charged with acts of lewd conduct involving 23 students earlier this week. But news of Berndt’s charges spurred an alleged victim to report to authorities an allegation against the second Miramonte teacher.
District officials say the moment they learned of the accusation against the second educator, they removed him from the campus and prevented contacts with students.
“A new allegation came to our attention [Thursday], and we referred the allegation to the sheriff,” said Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. John Deasy. “We removed the teacher from the classroom and the matter is being investigated, like when any matter comes to our attention.
 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...y-plans-to-fire-second-miramonte-teacher.html

(snip)
It is Deasy's understanding there are "multiple incidents" involving the second teacher, but he deferred to investigators, saying he lacked additional details.
The second teacher, who has a second-grade class this year, was in his room Thursday morning when district officials ordered that he be directed to leave immediately, Deasy said.Deasy said paperwork to fire this teacher is in process. He said he hopes to have it ready by a closed session of the Board of Education scheduled for next Tuesday "if I can type that fast."
 
A claim has been filed on behalf of one of the 23 students, alleging a "massive cover-up".

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/l...-Elementary-School-Molest-Case-138674334.html

Attorney Brian Claypool accused Miramonte teachers of escorting young female students to the empty classroom of Mark Henry Berndt afterschool so he could “carry out all of his sordid activities on these kids.”

“He would say, ‘Hey that little girl over there looks pretty,’” Claypool said during a noontime news conference outside Miramonte Elementary School. ”Why don’t you bring those little girls over to my class over here.

“That is horrible, horrific, reprehensible and that puts this school on notice that they have other individuals working in that school who have aided and abetted Mr. Berndt.”
 
JoeFromLB said:
A claim has been filed on behalf of one of the 23 students, alleging a "massive cover-up".

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/l...-Elementary-School-Molest-Case-138674334.html

Attorney Brian Claypool accused Miramonte teachers of escorting young female students to the empty classroom of Mark Henry Berndt afterschool so he could “carry out all of his sordid activities on these kids.”

“He would say, ‘Hey that little girl over there looks pretty,’” Claypool said during a noontime news conference outside Miramonte Elementary School. ”Why don’t you bring those little girls over to my class over here.

“That is horrible, horrific, reprehensible and that puts this school on notice that they have other individuals working in that school who have aided and abetted Mr. Berndt.”
Click to expand...

Ok, I find this somewhat difficult to believe UNLESS it was one other teacher and they were in cahoots (like the other teacher arrested today). I just can't imagine Mrs. Smith, and Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Jones all going along with this. Maybe I just can't fathom it, but logistically it seems difficult (for kids outside of his classroom - I have no problem believing the horrible stories he did to his own class kids). I mean don't the kids from the other classes have to be accounted for - i.e. either a carpool lane or the bus? If they were brought over to his classroom - how did they get home? Where did their parents think they were? Or this was during school? Then they were added to the kids in his class?
 
What, is it open season on children in LA schools? Jeesh. The teacher thing is getting ridiculous. Just how many teachers are molesting their students around the country? Gah, better not even go there.
 
Parents are NOT happy.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?s...geles&id=8531347&rss=rss-kabc-article-8531347

Thousands rally in wake of Miramonte teacher arrests
February 4, 2012

"Thousands gathered at an education rally at Exposition Park Saturday amid growing outrage over the arrests of two Miramonte Elementary School teachers. Parents, teachers and students at the demonstration were asking for better schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District. Many held up signs reading, "Students come first" or "Families for change." The theme of the rally was "Schools we can believe in," but that's a hard sell for parents with students enrolled in Miramonte Elementary School.

Martin Bernard Springer, 49, was arrested on Friday, accused of fondling two 7-year-old girls at Miramonte, where he was a second-grade teacher. He is charged with lewd acts on a child and is being held on $2 million bail...."

and

"...The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that Berndt and Springer knew each other. School newsletters show that they took their classes on at least two joint field trips over the last decade..."

more at link (plus video)
 
And:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0204-teacher-20120204,0,798863.story

School stunned at arrest of second teacher for alleged lewd acts
February 4, 2012

"....Also on Friday, more people came forward to say that they had complained to school officials about Berndt but that their concerns were ignored.

The parents of one student told The Times that their daughter showed them two strange photos Berndt allegedly took of her and other students in 2008. They said they went to the principal of the school at the time and showed him the photos. The principal, who is no longer at Miramonte, took no immediate action, said their attorney..."

more at link
 
The original article stated that there had never been a single complaint about this teacher. Now we see numerous complaints had been made over the years. This does not surprise me in the least. I have dealt with this type of attitude myself. The schools tend to approach every parental complaint as simply an angry, emotional parent that really has no valid complaint. I had one principal that started to walk away as soon as she saw me in the hall. I once spent over 2 hours at the district office waiting to speak to anybody with some authority. Even then nothing was done about the problem teacher. I ended up moving to another county to get my kids in a school that cared about the kids.

I feel so horrible for these kids. You know what I would sentence this piece of dirt? Give each child that he had in his classroom the chance for his our her father to have time alone, unsupervised, with the perp. The perp had access to their children, let the fathers have access to him.
 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0205-teacher-20120205,0,2044049.story

So this article says one girl may be the victim of BOTH teachers. When her parents had her removed from Berndt's class, she was transferred to Springer's class.

Parents took their concerns to the Principal who did nothing. These are inner city families, minorities, and treated like trash. Disposable.

On another note, thankfully Berndt took his photos to CVS and was reported by the photo tech. How many smarter guys are at home using their photo printers and not under any type of radar?
 
In our schools there is a 90 minutes reading block. During that block, it is not allowed to go to the classrooms and disturb the lesson. If there was something like this in place at Berndt's school, I can see how he wouldn't be scared of getting caught.

Another note, some principals (I've witnessed from personal experience) will try to handle everything themselves. They don't want a scandal associated with their school. Teachers are discouraged from calling child protection and must report to the principal first. Some principals get mad when a teacher goes behind their back and reports any type of abuse. It's sick.

I can totally believe that there was a cover up in this case. I know of a paraprofessional that was transferred from school to school because of complaints of physical abuse. Instead of firing the person and calling the cops, they are simply moved to another school. It's disgusting.
 
Has the question been raised as to why it took so many years for a photo tech to report strange photos? Where was Berndt taking his photos for development prior to late 2010? Or did the photo sessions just suddenly start getting ugly, even thought Berndt was creepy for decades?

Did the man want to get caught or is he really that deluded or stupid to allow these vile images to be viewed by a photo tech? Thank you, Photo Tech-person, whoever you are!!!!
 
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