LA Sex Crime Teacher Paid to Drop Appeal Over Firing

A Los Angeles teacher who was found to have committed lewd acts and “dress up” with children was paid off to drop his appeal against his LAUSD firing.

The third-grade teacher who has was found to have committed lewd acts on children was paid $40,000 to drop an appeal against his firing.

The Los Angeles Unified School District paid former third-grade teacher Mark Berndt $40,000 because it couldn’t defend his February 2011 firing, district general counsel David Holmquist said, writes the Associated Press.

Berndt was removed from the classroom in January after it was revealed that the former teacher tied up and gagged 23 children, put cockroaches in their mouths and posed in photos with them – all in his classroom.

Berndt, 61, has been at the Miramonte Elementary School, which serves poor, mainly Hispanic children, for more than 30 years. He was dismissed as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was investigating him – he appealed against it but resigned in June after the district agreed to pay him four months of back salary and reimburse his health benefit costs.

Holmquist explained:

“We were told we could not do any investigation” to avoid interfering with the criminal probe.

“We didn’t have any evidence and we couldn’t put on any witnesses. We didn’t have anything to successfully defend a challenge.”

The man behind the sex scandal that has torn a school apart once dressed up as Mickey Mouse and posed creepily with children under his care, writes Debbie Emery at the Radar.

“In a financial settlement reached in June of 2011, the Los Angeles Unified School District paid Mark Berndt $23,980.10 in back pay and $16,019.90 in legal fees.”

Under the agreement, Berndt, 61, is entitled to his full pension and retirement health benefits.

Parents from the district said they were angry that they were never told about the allegations or the fact that a second Miramonte teacher, Martin Springer, was later charged with committing three lewd acts on one girl in class in 2009.

Parent Sylvia Hernandez said:

“We were never informed of this. It’s a big shock.

“We would like to be informed. We’d like to know what’s going on with our children in school. … That’s the least we can expect.”

What makes the case even more bizarre is the revelation that a female teacher’s aide allegedly wrote love letters to an 11-year-old boy, writes Debbie Emery at the Radar.

Areceli Luisjuan reportedly penned the indecent messages to the fourth-grader back in 2009, much to the disgust of the boy’s mother, who said that the school didn’t take it seriously.

The notes said:

“When I was writing this letter, I was crying. My heart was breaking into pieces.

“Oh! I didn’t tell you that I like when you put your arm around my shoulder, and if I told you not to do that it’s because I don’t want to put you in trouble, but I like it…”

She added in one note:

”Read the letter and throw it away. I don’t want your mom or brother to find it.”

In an attempt to firmly draw a line under the horrific revelations, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy dismissed the entire 120-member faculty. The school was then shut for two days as part of the unprecedented move by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“Superintendent John Deasy said the makeover was needed to clear the school from a cloud of distrust and suspicion stemming from Berndt’s arrest.”

However, when the school reopened only 68 percent of the 948 expected students arrived.

Comments

Wonder why people want a vocuher system

February 13, 2012 at 4:13 pm

The public schools are a mess with incompetent teachers, do nothing administrators and board members who are in bed with the unions. The only stable institution are the unions and they answer to no one.

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Laya

February 13, 2012 at 6:13 pm

Shame on the parents for not binding together and protesting
the despicable behavior by this sick teacher.

Every single parent should have protested by rallying around the school building. Every parent should have kept their child home so that all of the classrooms would remain empty.

Every parent should have written a letter and insisted on his resignation without pay.

This teacher should be punished severely for his action and the Unions should be responsible for this behavior as well.

Hound the Union until they own up to this.

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Linda Brees

February 14, 2012 at 6:56 am

“Every single parent should have protested by rallying around the school building. Every parent should have kept their child home so that all of the classrooms would remain empty.”

Sure, I’m ok with doing this. You gonna go to work and earn my salary while I do this? I could at least see why people would blame the unions though of course I disagree, but shaming the parents? That kind of ridiculous blame-shifting I wouldn’t have believed unless I’d actually seen it. Shame on you, Laya!

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George Buzzetti

February 14, 2012 at 8:30 pm

This is not over. The administration is the problem. Ed code says that an administrator can get 1 year in jail and a $10,000 fine for not properly reporting. We know they have been doing this for a long time. It goes to the top. What do you want with a superintendent with a phony PHD and more? Just go to John Deasy, University of Louisville on Google.

Just today on T.V. is was revealed there are more cases, I mean multiple from one teacher and it was in the past.

This is pattern and practice. The district constantly breaks the law. How else could this happen? Does anyone really believe that no one knew for this amount of time? Does anyone believe that there should not have been a red flag on Berendt’s file to watch closely after the 1994 incident? Never happened.

This is just the beginning of more in a district I call the “Los Diablos Disunified School District.”

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Dave Wallace

February 16, 2012 at 6:13 pm

I really don’t see any hard eveidence against this teacher .. innuendos yes, prosecuteable evididence, I don’t think so ..

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Dave Wallace

February 16, 2012 at 6:19 pm

They will have to have some hard evidence to prosecute this teacher, a jar of vaseline on his desk isn’t even close to making a case for the prosecution! I don’t think this will go anywhere but I do think that this teachers colleagues have an excellent case against the school board for their unjustified dismissals !

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