Miramonte Staff Replaced Amid Sex Abuse Scandal, but They'll Be Back

LAUSD

L.A. Unified School District chief John Deasy told parents tonight that the entire staff of the school would be replaced as authorities investigate the atrocious alleged sex crimes that took place at the Florence-Firestone campus.

However, many staff members would be allowed to eventually return, according to the Los Angeles Times.

It appeared to be a move to appease angry parents, who pulled one out of every four students from school today:

The 1,500-student campus in the country's second-largest district is closing tomorrow and Wednesday as the investigation continues.

Last week Mark Berndt was charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct after he allegedly bound and gagged students and took photos of them in disgusting acts.

Then a second teacher, Martin Bernard Springer, was arrested on suspicion of lewd acts with two students.

Parents organized a protest outside the school today.

In a dick move, Deasy tried to ban members of the media from attending his meeting with parents at a nearby high school tonight. (Way to [a] discriminate based on profession and, [b] blame the media for your district's disarray. We're sure you'll make plenty of friends among us, John. Good going.)

At least one reporter, KNX 1070's Claudia Peschiutta, got inside. She tweeted:

#LAUSD supt. says there will be new staff when #Miramonte reopens Thursday. There will also be a psychiatric social worker in every classrm.

She told KCAL News tonight that parents inside the high school auditorium chanted to let the press in, but cops kept reporters out. The legality of such a move has to be in question: Was it a public meeting on public property or not?

The Times notes that the relocation is temporary and says that Deasy even brought up the idea that some of the staffers were also traumatized by the situation.

Let's just make a wild guess here and say Deasy's not going to outlast this mess. While it's hard to blame him -- he's relatively new -- his response has been downright stupid.

Let's blame the media, play a shell game where there's no real reform, and try to sell the plan to parents thinking they won't know better.

How about getting to the root of this thing, finding out why it was covered up or at least ignored, and start the heads rolling, John?

Maybe it's because the first one will be his.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]