“It’s called, they’re not getting an education right now, because (they’re) closing down a school that students have gotten used to having teachers in and a school that they’ve gone to, to where it’s not fair on the kids and it’s not fair to the kid’s parents because they’re used to the teachers that come to them, telling them the problems of their kids and it hurts the teachers more than it hurts anybody in the world.”
Nicole Johnson, a resident in North Hollywood Calif. says, in regards to the teachers that have been accused of lewd acts on minors, some of which have officially been charged.
Over the past month beginning January 31, news sites have reported a number of teachers and workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District that have been accused of committing Lewd Acts on young children. It started with a teacher at Miramount Elementary in South Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times reported that former teacher Mark Berndt was charged with lewd acts on 23 children ages seven to ten. Using what he called to be a game, Berndt would tie the children up and fed them spoonfuls of semen and in some instances would blindfold students and put cockroaches on their faces.
From this accusation, more were soon to follow and the Los Angeles Unified School district made the decision to close down Miramount after a second teacher was arrested just four days after Berndt, for fondling a girl.
Residents, like Johnson, were unhappy about the superintendent’s decision. Johnson also said, she didn’t think the teachers should have been laid off, because, “there are still good ones even given the bad ones.”
Even more Los Angeles residents say they are disturbed at the number of teachers that are admitting to these crimes.
Judi Schmidt of North Hollywood Calif. says, “It’s disgusting.” She says, she first heard about the Miramount teacher during lunch, and she was so appalled that she couldn’t eat.
Similarly a local grandparent in Pacoima Calif., Bobbie Johnson says she is surprised at how many teachers have come out and thinks there should have been more signs of the abuse.
LAUSD’s Code of conduct states, no teacher is allowed to touch or have “physical contact with a student that is not age appropriate or within the scope of the individual’s responsibilities.” Teachers are expected to read and adhere to this strict code.
Subsequently, the California Penal Code says that anyone, even teachers, “who willfully and lewdly commits any lewd act on a child under 14 is guilty of a felony”. According to the standard dictionary definition, the term lewd is any acts that are deemed to be “crude and offensive in a sexual way.”
Once convicted in California, under the Megan’s Law, sex offenders will be publicly registered so that the community will know where they are at all times.