Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/81027
Cleared of ANY wrongdoing, Miramonte teachers return Story and photo by Frank Wells S who were cleared of any wrongdoing. The faculty members were abruptly chool is back in session for Los Ange- les' Miramonte Elementary teachers removed from the school last February, following the arrests of a current and a former teacher charged with lewd con- duct against students in what the super- intendent called a "confidence-building" measure. The entire staff reported to a not-yet-opened campus while Mira- monte students finished the school year with replacement teachers. "It was difficult, but we got through it. My teacher — she was like a second mother to me, of CTA member May Lynn Montano, who is back teaching fourth grade. " April, a fifth-grader, said Lawsuits Lawsuits filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District claim current and former LAUSD school administrators ignored student complaints dating back more than a decade about Mark Berndt, who was arrested in January and remains jailed after pleading not guilty to commit- ting lewd acts with 23 youngsters. The rest of the story: Protecting Your Due Process Rights CTA won a legislative battle to protect due process rights by defeating Senate Bill 1530. Despite what you've heard, the bill was not about protecting child molest- ers. CTA will not tolerate child molesters anywhere in our schools. "Teachers care about the safety of their students and would never support a bill that would put them in harm's way, CTA President Dean Vogel. "SB 1530 didn't make students any safer than the current law. It just stripped away the rights of teachers." Born out of grandstanding by politi- " said cians over what happened at Miramonte Elementary, SB 1530 did nothing to make students any safer. The current dismissal process works, and it keeps both students and teachers safe. Administrators just have to use it correctly. CTA, in fact, offered amendments to streamline the process, but the author of SB 1530, Sen. Alex Padillo, rejected them. Last spring parents and students protested the removal of all Miramonte teachers saying administrators should have dealt with the problem first. CTA third vertical-OUT.indd 1 September 2012 www.cta.org 37 5/2/11 4:53 PM