December 5, 2012: A day after Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima, LA County) re-introduced a bill calling for speedy dismissal for teachers accused of "gross misconduct," Vanessa Romo, reporting for KPPC radio in Southern California, announced that four more students under the age of 11 from Miramonte Elementary School have filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District alleging that a teacher performed lewd and lascivious acts against them. The children are represented by attorney John Manly; Manly "is demanding that LAUSD release all reports of abuse by teachers throughout the district," according to KPPC.
Without those documents there’s no way to “understand where the failure happened and who’s responsible,” Manly said. “Because if you just pay money and you don’t fix that, other kids are going to get hurt."
The lawsuits were filed in the wake of a report issued last week by the California state auditor, which concluded that LAUSD failed to properly report at least 144 cases of teacher misconduct to state authorities.
An excerpt from the cover letter, written to the Governor and the Legislature from State Auditor Elaine Howle:
[LAUSD] has made improvements to its p[olicies and procdedures related to reporting, investigating and tracking suspected child abuse over time. However....we found that [LAUSD] did not always actg promptly...nor did it always discipline employees in a timely manner. ...We noted that the district paid $3 million in salaries to 20 employees housed the longest for allegations of misconduct against students...
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