A former Miramonte Elementary School teacher was arrested on the Monday of January 30, 2012, with charges of child molestation of nearly two dozen students. Mark Berndt worked as a third grade teacher for over 30 years and is facing 23 counts of lewd acts with children between 2005 and 2010. Berndt is accused of putting live cockroaches on their faces, gagging the children, and feeding his semen to the girls.
Berndt was discovered when he took his cameras to get developed and the photo processor found these photos to be disturbing, thus reporting them to the authorities. The children thought it was a game that they would play, only to find out Berndt used it for his own sexual gratification. Berndt’s home was raided and it was discovered that he had hundreds of photos of children, as well as a DVD showing sexual bondage, which was very similar to that of which he had the children doing. He also had pictures of girls with blue plastic spoons filled with a clear-white substance which turned out to be his semen.
Four days later a 2nd teacher from Miramonte Elementary School was arrested for allegedly fondling at least two young girls who were both seven years old, at the time. Many parents pulled their children out of the school, and the elementary school itself closed for two days to hold an investigation. The entire faculty, from the principal to the janitors, of Miramonte Elementary School were pulled from the school because the full investigations were a distraction to the teachers, and they needed support to help them cope with the scandal. Social workers were available to speak with both the students and the teachers to help them deal with any issues they had.
During the days of the investigation, angry parents protested against the school district, saying they should have been checking on the teachers and students, accusing that if they had, this whole situation could have been avoided. Now, the LAUSD is facing potential lawsuits by six different law firms. Former elementary teacher Mark Berndt pleaded not guilty in court and is being held on $23 million dollars bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on March 28th. The LAUSD superintendent has called for a review for hundreds of cases in the district, and since then, many more allegations of sexual misconduct in the district have been uncovered
