21 LAUSD Empoyees Linked to Sex Abuse Claims

cnredd · #1 (**permalink**) 05-19-2008, 03:44 PM

Quote:

LOS ANGELES (KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO) -- Los Angeles Unified School District says a total of 21 teachers and administrators have been yanked from schools in the past year because of allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with kids. The District only provided that figure after a week of repeated questions from KNX 1070.

Los Angeles city councilman Bernard Parks is putting forward a motion today calling on the District to disclose all information relating to alleged sex crimes by a former assistant principal at two schools in the South LA area.

Now, of course, this has nothing to do with the Catholic Church, so this isn't a national scandal, but check this out...

Ready for this one folks?...make sure you're sitting down...

Council Memebers Seek Answers From LAUSD On Abuse Accusations

Quote:

The council's request came on the same day that LAUSD officials said that more than 20 employees have been removed from school in the past year because of inappropriate sexual conduct accusations that involved children. School officials said 25 teachers and employees were removed from schools during the past year.

"This is not out of the ordinary for school districts all over the nation," said LAUSD Deputy Superintendent Ray Cortines. "These things happen.

crazyflamingos · #2 (**permalink**) 05-19-2008, 03:52 PM

21 out of how many employees? I would be interested to know the percentages.

All one has to do is read the headlines to know that this is a nationwide problem. Or have been to high school. This was a problem 45 years ago when my eldest brother was in school -- his future wife was "touched by a coach -- and it is still a problem today.

foundit66 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-19-2008, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cnredd

Now, of course, this has nothing to do with the Catholic Church, so this isn't a national scandal, but check this out...

What made the Catholic church thing a scandal was NOT that "religion" adults molested children.
Heck. By EVERY statistic I have read, the "molestation" rate for Catholic priests was entirely equivalent with the rest of the nation.
Perhaps a little bit more of a problem from the perspective of adults IN TRUSTED AUTHORITY positions molesting children, but the same applies for teachers, doctors, etc, etc...
(This article showing a correlation to that. The other stories of "high school teacher has sex with student" being another popular news item.)

The reason it was REALLY a scandal was the COVER-UP by the Catholic church.
And unless you can show how the families of these kids were bribed by the LAUSD, there is no comparison.

Quote:

The council's request came on the same day that LAUSD officials said that more than 20 employees have been removed from school in the past year because of inappropriate sexual conduct accusations that involved children. School officials said 25 teachers and employees were removed from schools during the past year.

"This is not out of the ordinary for school districts all over the nation," said LAUSD Deputy Superintendent Ray Cortines. "These things happen.

I remember in high school there was a shop teacher that got involved with some of the students.
There was another local school that had a teacher marry a student shortly after graduation.

"These things happen", but then "these things" typically wind up at least fired, if not jailed.
And 25 of "these things" typically don't happen in one year, although I would love to hear about the statistics as to the size of LAUSD and number of "employees".

crazyflamingos · #4 (**permalink**) 05-19-2008, 06:45 PM

I just looked at their website. I didn't find anything about how many people they employ or even how many schools.

But I looked at their list of elementary schools and there were several hundred!

25 doesn't really seem like such a large number from that perspective.

http://search.lausd.k12.ca.us/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe

cnredd · #5 (**permalink**) 05-19-2008, 07:44 PM

This gets nuttier everytime I do research...

Pair charged in abuse case are back at school

Quote:

Prosecutors criticize L.A. schools chief for allowing officials who allegedly failed to report a molestation claim to return to their campus jobs.

Los Angeles County prosecutors were sharply critical Monday of L.A. school district Supt. David L. Brewer's decision to send two high school administrators back to work on campus after they were criminally charged with failing to report a student's claims that she was sexually abused by a substitute teacher.

David Demerjian, head of the Los Angeles district attorney's Public Integrity Division, said it's "very unusual" for public officials accused of a crime to be allowed to return to their jobs -- particularly when they deal with children.

"It is very surprising. We prosecute a lot of public employees, and they are usually placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the trial," he said.

Jesus Angulo, principal of South East High School in South Gate, and Maria Sotomayor, an assistant principal, were charged May 1 with failing to report child abuse allegations by a girl who said substitute teacher Jesus Salvador Saenz had sex with her.

As district employees, they are mandated under state law and district policy to report any reasonable suspicion of child abuse to a "child protective services agency."

But prosecutors said when the student went to the administrators in October, they failed to do so.

The South Gate case follows intense criticism of the Los Angeles Unified School District for its handling of the case of former assistant principal Steve Rooney.

In February 2007, the Los Angeles Police Department told district officials that Rooney was suspected of having sexual contact with a student at Foshay Learning Center in South L.A.

After initially putting Rooney in a desk job at a non-school site, district officials transferred him to Markham Middle School in Watts when prosecutors didn't file charges. He has now been charged with molesting two students there and the former Foshay student.

Angulo and Sotomayor have not yet been arraigned and could be not be reached for comment Monday. If convicted, they each face up to six months in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000.

Brewer, in an interview with The Times, defended the decision to return the administrators.

He said they were needed back on campus to avoid disruptions -- particularly with state academic testing this week and graduation scheduled in the next few weeks.

That'll teach 'em!...

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

LinkBacks (?) LinkBack to this Thread: http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/news-current-events/3245-21-lausd-empoyees-linked-sex-abuse-claims.html
Posted By	For	Type	Date
Political Wrinkles	This thread	Refback	05-19-2008 06:58 PM

The Following User Says Thank You to foundit66 For This Useful Post:
Spencer Collins