Pedophile teacher busted
- Thread starter karrie
- Start date
An alcoholic tends to lack a sense of personal responsibility towards how his or her actions affect others. A pedophile doesn't just lack a sense of responsibility, however. They directly target their victims, with full awareness to the lifelong injuries they are causing. It's the difference between manslaughter and first degree murder.
How is letting a crazy person out to kill again protecting the public? The guy who slaughtered the poor guy on the bus was released from a prior offence and 'cured' and was told to take his pills. Unfortunatly, our system does not allow someone to forcably shove those pills down the crazy persons throat so we can't really make them take their pills. I am sure he will be released again and kill somebody else.
I think someone is playing semantics with a word in common usage to denote people of ugly character. It takes the word from "poor sick fellow needs help" realm and deposits it right where it belongs in the disgusting category. No, he has not been diagnosed. No it is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. If they're clever enough to hide it, maybe they're clever enough to stay ahead of Bubba and the boyz in prison.
The term, "pedophile" is generally taken by the public to mean child molester or one who molests children though the
dictionary meaning is "sexually attracted to children". I know that all "pedophiles" don't act on those desires
but I think we are walking a fine line here. Pedophiles often take jobs where they are close to children and
have some control over those children. Some are never do anything to be detected but I don't think pedophiles
should be hired as teachers etc.
I couldn't disagree more.
Um....is there something particular in my post that you do not comprehend?
...and some sexual predators take a job without regard for who they are close to and simply assault the easiest or most available targets.
...and some glib individuals practice their crazy-making behaviour on others then point the blame away when it all caves in beyond their control
They may do alright teaching a geriatrics class, but kindergarten wouldn't be recommended.
Some do, some don't.
a) Pedophile
b) Sadist
c) Insane
d) All of the above
e) Some of the above
f) None of the above
I pick d.
I support justice.
Legal Judgement
Responsibility for Actions
Punishment
Rehabilitation
Victim Compensation
Excuse me for not joining a vigilante lynch mob.
Apparently, all of the staff at the school will be getting let go due to the actions of this teacher and another teacher who was put into custody on suspicion of molesting two young girls. I think that is an overreaction to say the least, as there are 100 staff members there. It says that they will still be getting paid, but for how long and what the heck are they supposed to do for a job in the future? Also, what about their pensions? Here is the article, from canoe.ca.
LOS ANGELES - In an attempt to regain parents' trust, educational officials said on Monday they are replacing all staff at a Los Angeles school where two instructors are accused of having sexually abused children.
Police on January 30 arrested Miramonte Elementary instructor Mark Berndt, who they say placed cockroaches on students' faces and offered them spoonfuls of a substance found to be semen. Four days later they arrested another teacher, Martin Springer, on suspicion of molesting two students.
The arrests angered parents with children in the school, which is located in a poor and largely Latino area near South Los Angeles, and raised serious questions about oversight on the campus.
"The superintendent feels the changeover is important given what is happening in the school," said Tom Waldman, a spokesman for Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy.
The school district decided to replace the staff to "restore confidence in the school with the parents, give it a fresh start," Waldman said.
Even though troubled Miramonte ranks as one of the largest elementary schools in the nation, with about 1,400 students, replacing its staff can be done as many qualified teachers are searching for jobs, Waldman said.
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Deasy met on Monday with parents of children studying at Miramonte. Earlier in the day, dozens of parents staged a protest rally outside the school.
Berndt, 61, was charged with 23 counts of lewd acts on children. He remains jailed on bail of $23 million.
His arrest followed a year-long investigation that began when a drug store photo processor turned over pictures to police that showed students blindfolded and with their mouths covered with tape.
Some of the pictures, which were taken in a classroom, showed students with a milky substance held up to their faces that was later determined, through DNA analysis of a plastic spoon, to be Berndt's semen, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.
In some cases, children were pictured with large, live Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces and mouths, the Sheriff's Department has said.
Four days after Berndt's arrest, police took Springer into custody on suspicion of molesting two students, who were both girls about 7 years old, authorities said.
Captain Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said last week an initial investigation did not find the two cases are connected, other than the fact both Springer and Berndt taught at the same school. Publicity surrounding Berndt's arrest led to authorities receiving the complaints against Springer, Parker said.
Springer, 49, has not been formally charged, but he was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing teachers in the city, said in a statement it supports a "thorough, vigorous and fair investigation of all the allegations."
Miramonte Elementary has over 100 staff members, according to its website.
The displaced staff will continue to be paid and will receive counseling, Waldman said. The school district plans to replace the staff over the next two days, when the campus will be closed, he said. Because of layoffs from budget cuts in recent years, the district has many teachers on a re-hiring waiting list who can move in to open positions at Miramonte Elementary, he said.
LOS ANGELES - In an attempt to regain parents' trust, educational officials said on Monday they are replacing all staff at a Los Angeles school where two instructors are accused of having sexually abused children.
Police on January 30 arrested Miramonte Elementary instructor Mark Berndt, who they say placed cockroaches on students' faces and offered them spoonfuls of a substance found to be semen. Four days later they arrested another teacher, Martin Springer, on suspicion of molesting two students.
The arrests angered parents with children in the school, which is located in a poor and largely Latino area near South Los Angeles, and raised serious questions about oversight on the campus.
"The superintendent feels the changeover is important given what is happening in the school," said Tom Waldman, a spokesman for Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy.
The school district decided to replace the staff to "restore confidence in the school with the parents, give it a fresh start," Waldman said.
Even though troubled Miramonte ranks as one of the largest elementary schools in the nation, with about 1,400 students, replacing its staff can be done as many qualified teachers are searching for jobs, Waldman said.
http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v....eyereturn.com/redir.aspx?tokenID=369151&cn=0
Deasy met on Monday with parents of children studying at Miramonte. Earlier in the day, dozens of parents staged a protest rally outside the school.
Berndt, 61, was charged with 23 counts of lewd acts on children. He remains jailed on bail of $23 million.
His arrest followed a year-long investigation that began when a drug store photo processor turned over pictures to police that showed students blindfolded and with their mouths covered with tape.
Some of the pictures, which were taken in a classroom, showed students with a milky substance held up to their faces that was later determined, through DNA analysis of a plastic spoon, to be Berndt's semen, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.
In some cases, children were pictured with large, live Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces and mouths, the Sheriff's Department has said.
Four days after Berndt's arrest, police took Springer into custody on suspicion of molesting two students, who were both girls about 7 years old, authorities said.
Captain Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said last week an initial investigation did not find the two cases are connected, other than the fact both Springer and Berndt taught at the same school. Publicity surrounding Berndt's arrest led to authorities receiving the complaints against Springer, Parker said.
Springer, 49, has not been formally charged, but he was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing teachers in the city, said in a statement it supports a "thorough, vigorous and fair investigation of all the allegations."
Miramonte Elementary has over 100 staff members, according to its website.
The displaced staff will continue to be paid and will receive counseling, Waldman said. The school district plans to replace the staff over the next two days, when the campus will be closed, he said. Because of layoffs from budget cuts in recent years, the district has many teachers on a re-hiring waiting list who can move in to open positions at Miramonte Elementary, he said.
Apparently, all of the staff at the school will be getting let go due to the actions of this teacher and another teacher who was put into custody on suspicion of molesting two young girls. I think that is an overreaction to say the least, as there are 100 staff members there. It says that they will still be getting paid, but for how long and what the heck are they supposed to do for a job in the future? Also, what about their pensions? Here is the article, from canoe.ca.
LOS ANGELES - In an attempt to regain parents' trust, educational officials said on Monday they are replacing all staff at a Los Angeles school where two instructors are accused of having sexually abused children.
Police on January 30 arrested Miramonte Elementary instructor Mark Berndt, who they say placed cockroaches on students' faces and offered them spoonfuls of a substance found to be semen. Four days later they arrested another teacher, Martin Springer, on suspicion of molesting two students.
The arrests angered parents with children in the school, which is located in a poor and largely Latino area near South Los Angeles, and raised serious questions about oversight on the campus.
"The superintendent feels the changeover is important given what is happening in the school," said Tom Waldman, a spokesman for Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy.
The school district decided to replace the staff to "restore confidence in the school with the parents, give it a fresh start," Waldman said.
Even though troubled Miramonte ranks as one of the largest elementary schools in the nation, with about 1,400 students, replacing its staff can be done as many qualified teachers are searching for jobs, Waldman said.
http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v....eyereturn.com/redir.aspx?tokenID=369151&cn=0
Deasy met on Monday with parents of children studying at Miramonte. Earlier in the day, dozens of parents staged a protest rally outside the school.
Berndt, 61, was charged with 23 counts of lewd acts on children. He remains jailed on bail of $23 million.
His arrest followed a year-long investigation that began when a drug store photo processor turned over pictures to police that showed students blindfolded and with their mouths covered with tape.
Some of the pictures, which were taken in a classroom, showed students with a milky substance held up to their faces that was later determined, through DNA analysis of a plastic spoon, to be Berndt's semen, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.
In some cases, children were pictured with large, live Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces and mouths, the Sheriff's Department has said.
Four days after Berndt's arrest, police took Springer into custody on suspicion of molesting two students, who were both girls about 7 years old, authorities said.
Captain Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said last week an initial investigation did not find the two cases are connected, other than the fact both Springer and Berndt taught at the same school. Publicity surrounding Berndt's arrest led to authorities receiving the complaints against Springer, Parker said.
Springer, 49, has not been formally charged, but he was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing teachers in the city, said in a statement it supports a "thorough, vigorous and fair investigation of all the allegations."
Miramonte Elementary has over 100 staff members, according to its website.
The displaced staff will continue to be paid and will receive counseling, Waldman said. The school district plans to replace the staff over the next two days, when the campus will be closed, he said. Because of layoffs from budget cuts in recent years, the district has many teachers on a re-hiring waiting list who can move in to open positions at Miramonte Elementary, he said.
Wow. That seems rather extreme. They'll have to place them elsewhere or else open themselves up for multiple wrongful dismissal cases.
I take it the principal is going nowhere though.
True enough, if they have enough of a waiting list that they can replace 100 positions in two days. This is the board and/or principal trying to make it seem like they are doing something by doing anything. And it's a bad idea.
For some reason it reminds me somewhat of the backlash/paranoia against daycares back in the eighties when there was that one daycare, I think also in California, where there was rampant molestation. (At least I think, I may be remembering it wrong).
Punish all the innocent by-standers, that'll learn 'em.
In high-profile cases such as this, there always seems to be that overreaction(like the incidents you mentioned), and the people that had no way of knowing this was going on end up suffering for one person's(two in this case) misdeeds. I think that there may be some wrongful termination lawsuits if this ends up happening. It's a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I don't include recovering alcoholics in that because those are people who have taken very difficult steps to take responsibility for themselves. I think often active alcoholics are filled with self blame and guilt but that's not the same thing as taking responsibility for one's actions and how they affect others. Isn't that part of AA, supporting alcoholics in taking that step towards responsibility?
I support prevention of victimization of children. Justice is about what to do with someone who has already victimized. In many ways, it is always a case of too little, too late.Let's focus on prevention. Describing the criticism of the perception of pedophiles as poor helpless victims who suffer from a psychiatric disorder--which is simply accepting the pedophile/sexual abusers self excuses and justification--as a vigilante mobi s simply empowering pedophiles in society to be able to hide behind victim status. That empowerment is an endangerment to children.
It's not that it's a high profile case, it's that it was a case of systematic, repeated, abuse. The problem is that it's super tricky to know how far that abuse spread. If this was taking place, who knew? Who helped? Who excused it?
I think the over-reaction (firing a whole school) will serve to make the problem (diddlers {or dribblers} in positions of trust) appear more widespread than it really is.
All valid questions for sure but my gut tells me this is something that was done to appease a group of parents.
Perhaps some other staff members knew(but that would make them just as bad as he is), but there is no way the entire school would know! I don't agree with what they did.
Judging from what was written in the article, this is what sounds like happened.
I'm sure there were possibly a few who didn't want to know and thus didn't question why the door was locked so often. But how does anyone prove that? If there was anyone like that there, their own cowardice overpowered their conscience a long time ago so I doubt they'll confess to it.
Anyway if the logic behind the mass layoff/firing was that they should have known and did nothing then I think the principal should also be out of work right now. It is, after all, his or her job to know what is going on in the school.