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The Los Angeles Unified School District has been doing their homework: A review of teacher misconduct allegations over the past 40 years has yielded 591 cases, according to the Pasadena Star News.LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy ordered the massive review of files in February in the wake of the Miramonte Elementary scandal centered around Mark Berndt, who is accused of engaging youngsters in a sexually explicit "tasting game" in the classroom. Deasy, Miramonte, and the LAUSD came under fire for how they handled such claims against faculty and staff.
Of the nearly 600 cases, officials with the state credentialing committee have sorted out which ones they are able to delve deeper into. Here's how the numbers break down:
Officials said 103 of the allegations had previously been reported and the agency lacked the authority to handle 122 others. That leaves 366 to be formally investigated, a number that is likely to climb as principals wrap up their work and the district transmits more files to the teacher licensing agency.
An investigation typically takes six months, so it could be years before all the over 300 cases get their formal probe. It takes a lot of manpower to do the digging, as the review period proved, and as the forthcoming investigations will likely demonstrate as well, but Deasy says it's worth it.
"We can never again have a situation where teachers are in a position to do harm to our students," he told the Star-News.
