Culture of silence: more abuse at US schools pictures for schools,Miramonte elementary school is scheduled to re-open today – it’s been closed for two days. The growing ual abuse scandal at the inner-city school has become so bad that the district felt it needed to shut down the school remove all 150 teachers and staff members and replace them with temporary teachers when classes resume. The scandal began early last week when a veteran teacher was arrested for allegedly blindfolding young children and feeding them his semen during what he called a tasting game. Police initially seized 400 pictures which they say show Mark Berndt committing lewd acts on children. Yesterday, they reported that 200 more photographs were found on a computer at the photo lab where an employee first tipped off authorities. Late last week, a second teacher was arrested for allegedly fondling a young girl. Now, the head of the nation’s second largest school system says he’s trying to get to the bottom of the abuse. John Deasy is superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The latest allegation involving Miramonte elementary school comes from the mother of a young boy who was allegedly receiving love letters from a female teacher’s aide when pictures for schoolshe was in the fourth grade. The mother – who produced one of the letters for the Los Angeles Times – says she met with school officials and police back in 2009, but nothing was ever done. In one letter, the teacher’s aide writes: When you get close to me, even if you give me the chills I like that. Dont tell nobody about this! she ends the letter by saying, Read the letter and throw it away. I dont want your mom or brother to find it.
Garcia also tells KNBC TV that he’s worried about the effect on classroom learning.
My daughter goes there. My grandson goes there. And they are doing excellent, as r as their academic skills and what not. I think it’s a real’ good school.
For parents like Francisco Garcia, the decision to remove all the teachers is difficult on the children.
John Deasy, the district superintendent, says he’s now trying to weed out what he calls a culture of silence. He says he’s still trying to understand how this abuse could have happened without the knowledge of school administrators. For parents, they’re losing confidence – and patience. When Deasy met with the parents, the press was barred from the meeting and there were shouts of cover up in the crowed. After the meeting, one parent summed up his feelings: My trust level is at zero.
Now we, at home, have to find a way to explain to them why is it that they come back to school and have a brand-new teacher.
The underlying conduct, involving the two cases, is different. Even though the charges were similar, there are different types of allegations.
I think itCulture of silence: more abuse at US schools pictures for schools is very important that the actions that we are taking not be seen as a condemnation of an entire staff.
And while the superintendent is, at least for now, replacing all of the teachers, he doesn’t want his action to cast a shadow on the 88 teachers and dozens of staff members.
Don’t mistake for a second. I’m outraged, disgusted and I think through just the kind of unimaginable violation of trust.
One question that still hasn’t been fully answered is what knowledge other teachers or staff members had about the ongoing abuse. Police believe the children were victimized in the classroom, and some students first complained about Mark Berndt more than 20 years ago. That’s when several girls told administrators that he was masturbating under his desk. But a school consular simply told them to stop up stories. As for the two suspects now in custody, Sandi Gibbons with the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office says the cases are not linked.
