Jorge Dominguez, Gratts School Teacher's Aide, Arrested in Sex Abuse Investigation

Categories: Miramonte

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Google Maps
Gratts.
Another L.A. public schools employee has been accused of "horrifying and sickening" acts with children, according to the superintendent. Jorge Dominguez was arrested this morning, and district officials said they were in the process of firing him this afternoon.

That contrasts with the situation the erupted at Miramonte Elementary School in South L.A., where district officials kept parents in the dark for months regarding the unspeakable allegations levied against teacher Mark Berndt.

In this case ...

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State Republican Leaders Get in Bed With ... Villaraigosa (!?) in Bid For Post-Miramonte Teacher Reform

Categories: Miramonte

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Villaraigosa / Facebook
Strange bedfellows have arisen from the Miramonte Elementary School sex abuse scandal in which two teachers face charges for lewd conduct and a slew of allegations have hit educators at other area campuses.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who once vowed to take over the L.A. school district and who has tried to reshape its elected board in his image, had been silent for weeks on the matter, even as it was revealed that one of the accused at Miramonte, Mark Berndt, had been paid $40,000 and was allowed to leave quietly with is pension intact.

But now ...

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Ted Nishihara is Latest School Sex Scandal Suspect: Lewd Act Alleged in La Mirada

Categories: Miramonte

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Nishihara's Twitter photo
January's Miramonte Elementary School sex abuse scandal has unleashed a torrent of accusations against area teachers. The latest involves Ted Nishihara, a substitute educator at Los Coyotes Middle School in La Mirada.

The 29-year-old was arrested yesterday after a student said he touched her inappropriately.

That report was made last Thursday, but after interviewing students and others Monday, sheriff's special victims detectives went to Nishihara's Cerritos home ...

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Blindfolding Kids at L.A. Unified Schools Banned

Categories: Miramonte

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Wouter Kersbergen
The L.A. Unified School District has reacted slowly and sometimes defensively to the horrific Miramonte Elementary School sex abuse scandal.

One of the stranger outcomes will be that fourth graders will no longer be blindfolded for an exercise designed to test and strengthen kids senses.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the sex scandal, but:

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Miramonte Scandal Fallout Prompts L.A. School District to Report Alleged Pervs to State, as It Should Have Done From Day 1

Categories: Miramonte

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Claremont Colleges Digital Library
So L.A. Unified School District has had a few alleged bad apples that only it and, in some cases, police knew about.

Despite what we've been told about federal Title 9 guidelines requiring parents and students to be notified when someone at their campus is accused of sexual improprieties with students, the public was kept in the dark. Even the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which can pull an instructor's teaching papers, was out of the loop.

Following the Miramonte Elementary School sex abuse scandal, no longer:

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George Hernandez's Sex Abuse Allegations Didn't Stop Him From Teaching: L.A. Unified Should Have Reported Him, Experts Say

Categories: Miramonte

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A scene from L.A. Unified.
In the wake of the Miramonte Elementary School sex abuse scandal the Los Angeles Times has unearthed yet another case of an L.A. school district staffer accused of lewd acts who continued to work around children nonetheless.

The crux of the story: George Hernandez, a career substitute teacher, was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior in front of or with grade-school students three times but continued teaching and, when he came to the end of his ropes at the district, simply left for Inglewood Unified.

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Mark Berndt's Settlement Document Exposed: Teacher Alleged to Have Sparked Miramonte Sex Scandal Got Paid

Categories: Miramonte

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With reporting from Beth Barrett

We already know that the L.A. Unified School District paid alleged student molester Mark Berndt $40,000 to go away.

It's an astonishing fact, even though the district contends that the payoff was the only way to get him to leave as he appealed the disciplinary case against him (last spring, long before his arrest last month on similar allegations).

But here, thanks to intrepid Weekly reporter Beth Barrett, we have the actual document that put this suspect in the money:

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Mark Berndt Complains That L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Called Him a 'Child Molester' Over the Loudspeaker

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KPCC
Not a child molester?
L.A. County Sheriff's deputies have been accused of more inmate abuse at their notorious Twin Towers lockup downtown.

Yet for once, nobody really cares.

That's because the accusations are coming from alleged Miramonte Elementary sex monster Mark Berndt, in whose possession Sheriff's investigators found hundreds of photos of third-graders ...

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Gleason Middle School Teacher Removed for Taking Photos of Girls, Source Says

Categories: Miramonte

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Audra B.
Another day, another sex scandal for the L.A. Unified School District.

This morning we told you that claims of sexual improprieties at public schools were through the roof following the horrific allegations at Miramonte Middle School last month.

This latest case involves a teacher at Gleason Middle School in Tujunga, and L.A. Weekly has learned his name and even the apparent nature of the accusations:

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Miramonte Sex Abuse Scandal Might Have Inspired Many New Allegations, Including an Alleged Rape, at L.A. Schools

Categories: Miramonte

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Brad Flickinger
If you think that the lid was blown off of sex abuse allegations against L.A. school district staffers in these first months of 2012, you're right.

But now we have to ask if the scandal at Miramonte Elementary School has inspired victims to come forward, or if it has simply opened a door for people to complain about things that might not be criminal.

The Daily Breeze this week cracked open the abuse-allegation books at L.A. Unified School District and found that claims of sex abuse have gone through the roof in the wake of Miramonte:

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Miramonte Kids to Blame For Horrendous Sex Abuse Scandal at Elementary School, Says Rosewood Principal Linda Crowder

Categories: Miramonte

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Dumb parents at Miramonte.
You could point the finger at a hot mess of targets in the incredible sex-abuse scandal that has rocked Miramonte Elementary School:

A school district that failed to let parents know an alleged molester on the loose for nearly a year. A teachers' union that puts its people over your kids (suspect Mark Berndt will keep a pension no matter what). The alleged pervs themselves -- Berndt, Martin Springer and Ricardo Guevara (actually that last one was convicted).

But really, there's only one dark force we can truly blame here:

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Paul Chapel, Ex-Teacher at Telfair Elementary, Is Latest Alleged Molester That LAUSD Kept Under Wraps

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Getty Images
The Miramonte effect: molester-phobia is spreading across L.A.
Seriously, what is with all these old men (allegedly) touching kids at L.A.'s low-income schools?

The October 8 arrest of a former third-grade teacher at Telfair Elementary -- Paul William Chapel, 50 -- is the latest big reveal in the media hunt for more LAUSD child molesters, after Miramonte Elementary was found to be a cesspool for pervy adults.

The LA Daily News reports that Chapel...

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Miramonte's Berndt Got $40,000 From L.A. School Board to Quietly Walk Away Despite Alleged Sex-Abuse Atrocities

Categories: Miramonte

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KPCC
A photo of Berndt released by attorneys suing the district.
Corrected after the jump; headline has been changed.

If it weren't for his eventual arrest, we might have never found out about the atrocities alleged to have happened in Mark Berndt's Miramonte Elementary School class.

That's because the L.A. Unified School District's elected board quietly paid Berndt to go away, according to an astonishing report by KPCC's (89.3 FM) Tami Abdollah today.

Taxpayer money was given to Berndt:

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Miramonte Parents Scared L.A. Sheriff Will Deport Them -- Turning Sex-Scandal Probe Into Immigration Debate

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As if they don't have enough to worry about.
No matter the hot L.A. news item, it always seems to turn into an immigration debate.

And that should come as no surprise: Rough estimates have placed close to 1 million illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County. And whenever law enforcement or press come sniffing, the paperless are at risk of being outed.

This fear has reportedly played a large factor in the sheriff's probe of Miramonte Elementary in unincorporated South L.A.:

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Miramonte Staff Will Never Return to Scandal-Plagued Campus, Teachers' Union Says

Categories: Miramonte

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LAUSD
As was sure to happen, the sex-abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary is turning into a battle between the powerful teacher's union and the bureaucratically stifling L.A. Unified School District.

Who's right and who's wrong shouldn't even matter at this point. Sheriff's investigators believe there might be as many as 25 additional victims of suspect and ex-Miramonte teacher Mark Berndt.

But the union, silent on the matter until Monday, is whining:

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Areceli Luisjuan, Former Miramonte Aide: Did She Write 'Love Letters' to 11-Year-Old, or Has Media Witch Hunt Gone Too Far?

Categories: Media, Miramonte

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A photo of "Mrs. Luisjuan" on what appears to be her MySpace profile.
Every L.A. media outlet from KNX news radio to HuffPost has picked up the Los Angeles Times' latest Miramonte Elementary reveal this morning, in which one mother claims that a former teacher's aide at the beleaguered campus wrote numerous "love letters" to her 11-year-old son.

There are certainly some creepy bits:

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Miramonte Lawsuit Claims a Victim Was Transferred From Class of One Alleged Molester to That of Another After Dad Complained

Categories: Miramonte

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Berndt.
One of two lawsuits filed in the wake of the Miramonte Elementary School sex abuse scandal alleges one girl was victimized by suspect Mark Berndt and then transferred to the classroom of Martin Springer, who then allegedly touched her inappropriately.

In fact, according to the suit, the school's resolution following her father's complaints about inappropriate photos allegedly taken by Berndt was to move his daughter to the care of Springer, who was charged this week with three counts of lewd acts on a child.

Berndt, as you know ...

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Sex Abuse Scandal at Miramonte, Hamilton High Claims Jobs of Two Accused Teachers: Martin Springer and Vance Miller

Categories: Miramonte

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Springer.
In the midst of a historic scandal, the L.A. school district board today fired two teachers accused of molesting students.

A firestorm was sparked when ex-Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt was charged last week with 23 counts of unspeakable acts against children under his care: But he wasn't fired because he's retired. And, FYI, he's taking home more than $3,800 a month on pension pay.

Anyway, the lucky winners of today's unemployment are ...

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Ricardo Guevara: Meet Miramonte's Original Molester

Categories: Miramonte

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LAUSD
Miramonte.
You can add a third man to the string of accused sex criminals at embattled Miramonte Elementary School in Florence-Firestone.

Actually, he's not accused. He's convicted.

The story of Ricardo Guevara is getting renewed attention this week after the Los Angeles Times and Univision 34 broke his story last Thursday.

According to the Times:

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

Categories: Miramonte

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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:

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