"Lewd Acts" Is Mild Way Of Saying What Elementary Teacher Mark Berndt Is Accused Of

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A Miramonte Elementary School teacher who taught for three decades in South L.A. told students they would be playing "a game" before tying them up and feeding them from a spoon possibly containing semen, sources said.

Mark Berndt, 61, who is charged with lewd acts on 23 children and was taken into custody Monday, told the children the spoon contained something sugary and sweet, but authorities said they believed the substance was his semen, said the sources, who declined to comment on the record because the investigation is ongoing.

Berndt was fired in March and was being held Tuesday on $2.3-million bail.

A spoon recovered from a trash bin in Berndt's classroom is a key piece of evidence, said Capt. Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

"Early in the investigation, special victims bureau detectives recovered a blue plastic spoon and an empty container from the trash within the suspect’s classroom," Parker said. "The recovered items tested positive for semen."

Through further investigation, the suspect’s DNA was obtained and tested, and officials said it matched that of the DNA found on the spoon and container.
[...]

Parker said that, so far, 10 children in the photos recovered have not been identified. More than 80 children and staff have been in interviewed. Miramonte Elementary is in the Florence Firestone unincorporated area of Los Angeles County and is within the Los Angeles Unified School District.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...-was-game.html

The investigation began when a film processor gave authorities about 40 photographs depicting blindfolded children in a classroom with their mouths taped shut.

Some of the photos showed girls with what appears to be a spoon up to their mouths as if they were going to ingest a clear-white liquid.
[...]

Some of the children's mouths and faces had large, live Madagascar-type cockroaches on them, according to the statement.

Some photos showed Berndt with his arm around the children or with his hand over their mouths.

"It makes you sick to your stomach," Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy told KTTV Fox 11 News, which first reported the arrest.

Berndt is charged with committing lewd acts between 2008 and 2010. He worked for more than 30 years at Miramonte Elementary School in south Los Angeles.

He was immediately removed and fired when police informed the school district, Deasy said.

No student came forward to report the abuse, he said.

The sheriff's department said a search warrant served on Berndt's home led to the discovery of more than 100 similar photographs depicting children.

A DVD depicting adult sexual bondage activity "which mirrored the bondage-type photos of the children" was also found during the search, the department said, noting that those images are not a crime.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...tos/52900840/1

[redsaid]

Eeeeewwwww

Picturing little children in bondage was bad enough, I won't even go there with the cum sucking. Some things really are simply adult activities.

[melissa222]

That is one sick bastard, and Cell block G will be a nice home for him for a while!

[Chinchillazilla]

Berndt has never been married

That's crazy! Who would pass up a gem like this?

[Valasca]

When I get done puking...

[Marv]

I hope he gets force-fed lots of 'something sugary and sweet' in PRISON! Dirty fucker.

[badfish76]

One of the most disgusting things I think I have ever read, and that's saying something.

[malq]

I thought I had read it all.
23 kids, he blindfolded them and spoonfed them cum. If it had been for the photo processor, he would still be doing it.

About 400 photos were found at Berndt's home and at the photo lab during subsequent searches. It's not clear how many different children were pictured. At least 10 youngsters in the photos have not yet been identified.

Some photos showed Berndt with his arm around children or his hand over their mouths. Some photos showed children with live bugs the size of hissing cockroaches on their mouths or faces.

Others depicted girls with what appears to be a spoon up to their mouths as if they were going to ingest a clear-white liquid. Children were fed Berndt's semen from a spoon or on cookies, Marquez said.

Kids reported being fed something distasteful. A blue plastic spoon and container found in the trash in his classroom tested positive for his semen, authorities said.

Police recommended the children in the photos be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

There also may be more victims given the length of time that Berndt taught at the school, Marquez said.

Authorities could have arrested Berndt on misdemeanor charges when the investigation began but chose to build a stronger felony case, Marquez said.

He could get a life sentence if he is convicted

.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012...#storylink=cpy

[kafka]

atimes.com/news/local/la-me-0201-teacher-20120201,0,5063298.story
latimes.com
Los Angeles teacher charged with lewd acts
Allegations against a veteran Miramonte Elementary instructor leave many parents shocked and angry. The probe that led to 23 counts involving kids 7 to 10 began after disturbing photos were reported.

By Scott Gold, Richard Winton and Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times

February 1, 2012
Advertisement
Click here to find out more!

In the fall of 2010, a drugstore photo technician was running a batch of 35-millimeter film when a disturbing image tumbled out of the machine — a child, blindfolded with a white cloth and gagged with clear packing tape. From that first photograph, detectives spent the next year following a trail that led them to a South Los Angeles elementary school.

They say they found acts of staggering depravity.

There were more photos, it turned out — 400 more, traced to an apartment in nearby Torrance, then to a bustling schoolhouse in South Los Angeles. There, officials alleged Tuesday, a veteran third-grade teacher sought sexual gratification by spoon-feeding his semen to his students.

Mark Berndt, 61, a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in the community of Florence-Firestone, was charged with 23 counts of committing lewd acts on children.

Additional charges are likely, authorities said: Berndt had taught at Miramonte since 1979, and though test scores indicate that he was an average teacher, he was such a fixture that parents kept in touch with him after their children grew up, frequently inviting him to birthday parties and quinceañeras.

Berndt, who was being held in lieu of $2.3-million bail, regularly told his students that they were going to play a "tasting game," in which children were blindfolded and, in some cases, gagged with tape, authorities say. The semen appears to have been ingested by the children on a blue plastic spoon and, according to one alleged victim's father, on cookies.

The alleged victims were boys and girls ages 7 to 10.

"This occurred in his regular classroom with his students," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Scott. "It wasn't done in secrecy. The only secret was what the 'game' was really about."

Berndt is also accused of placing a 3-inch-long Madagascar cockroach on his students' faces and mouths.

Much remains unclear about the case. The acts that Berndt is charged with committing took place between 2005 and 2010, though detectives said they were still trying to determine how far back the alleged abuse occurred.

They are also trying to understand why no one — students, parents or fellow teachers — ever reported anything suspicious about Berndt's class. School officials insist that they received no complaints about Berndt, something they say is alarming given the charges against him.

"I wonder how long he was doing this — and to how many kids," said Arianna Perez, the mother of two Miramonte students.

Parents were stunned by the revelations. They harbored deep feelings that someone could have done more, earlier, though school officials said they removed Berndt from the classroom immediately upon learning of the criminal investigation, even as detectives remained unconvinced that they could win a conviction in court.

Kimberly Kirklin — a 32-year-old mother of six children, including three now enrolled at the school — was seething with rage. "These are our babies."

The neighborhood surrounding Miramonte Elementary is one of the poorest in Los Angeles County, peppered with used tire shops, tiny carnicerías decorated with images of Jesus and billboards advertising dentists who will yank a sore tooth for $49. The names of some nearby streets are known best because they have been appropriated by gangs — Avalon Boulevard, Compton Avenue.

Miramonte has struggled academically and is one of the last campuses in the school district to operate year-round because of overcrowding. But it was seen by many in the neighborhood as a refuge — even with gang graffiti covering the walls of an alley next to the tetherball courts.

The school's yellow and turquoise walls stood out, and students entered each morning through an arched doorway, beneath huge portraits of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa. Parents volunteered at the school — and were surprised, on occasion, to learn that their kids were itching to return from school vacations.

"Our beautiful school — this was our community," Kirklin said. "It's devastating."

Kirklin put her arm around one of her daughters, 10-year-old Gia, who refused to go to school Tuesday. Kirklin said that she couldn't blame her and that she would try to enroll her in another school.

"I'm not going to force her. I can't bring her back," Kirklin said.

The case began when the CVS pharmacy photo technician — who was not named by authorities, but was praised for alertness — called the Redondo Beach Police Department about the initial batch of photographs.

According to a school official who reviewed the images, most of the children were photographed one at a time. All were fully clothed. In some cases, the children were smiling, and some of those who were photographed with tape over their mouths are believed to have applied the tape themselves. Some photographs showed a spoon containing a milky liquid; in some images, the liquid could be seen in and around the children's mouths.

In January 2011, a detective from the sheriff's Special Victims Unit secretly visited Berndt's classroom and found a spoon in a trash can that matched the one seen in the photos. That spoon and a small container, also recovered from the trash, tested positive for traces of semen, officials said. Investigators then gathered a DNA sample from Berndt, which matched the DNA contained in the semen, they said.

Days later, detectives served a search warrant on his apartment in Torrance, where they recovered a DVD of adults portraying scenes of bondage, as well as scores of additional photographs.

Berndt and his sister owned the small apartment complex where he lived, property records show. There, a neighbor described him as nervous and skittish. He was known to take camping trips alone and generally kept to himself, often listening to classical music inside his apartment, another neighbor said.

By early 2011, the school district was aware of the investigation — but the vast majority of parents were not. The district appears to have been in a bind. Law enforcement officials insisted that the school keep the investigation quiet, because they wanted to avoid what one investigator called "cross-contamination" of witness accounts.

It took months for detectives to identify the 23 known victims from the photographs and to interview them and their relatives.

Berndt was arrested Monday at his apartment, and most parents only learned of the case Tuesday, either in a recorded message left on their phones by Principal Martin Sandoval or in a letter sent home with students. Many parents insisted that they should have been alerted earlier.

"I don't understand why it took them a year," said Jorge Ramirez, whose two children and nieces attended the school.

"At the very least they should have reached out to ask us for forgiveness," said the father of one alleged victim. The Times is withholding the name of the father to protect the identity of his 11-year-old son.

School officials said they moved on the case swiftly and decisively. Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. John Deasy said Berndt was removed from his classroom as soon as school officials learned of the investigation and was fired a short time later.

Berndt challenged the firing. But in June, he resigned from the district, which allowed him to keep lifetime health benefits provided by L.A. Unified. He also retains his state teachers pension.

In past instances, teachers accused of misconduct against students were suspended, not fired — and if there were no criminal charges or a conviction, they often returned to work.

In the Berndt case, even if the school's hands were tied, the duration of the investigation and the suspicion that more victims might be found cast a chill over the neighborhood.

A dark parlor game spread through the streets, as parents huddled under frontyard orange trees and talked through wrought-iron fences, trying to determine if their children had been in Berndt's class or had any exposure to him. Berndt, they said, was known to lock the door of his classroom while teaching.

Kirklin said she quizzed her three youngest children — the ones who still attend Miramonte — about whether they had ever witnessed any unusual behavior. None had, she said. But Kirklin hadn't yet gotten around to asking her older children, one of whom said: "I had him."

"What?" Kirklin erupted. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"He never did anything," the 15-year-old girl said.

"Are you sure?" Kirklin asked.

Other parents said they were left trying to figure out how to explain the case to their children.

"I'm going to have to talk with them," said Maria Salazar, the mother of two Miramonte students. "But I don't have any idea what I'm going to say yet."

It was unclear Tuesday whether the court had appointed Berndt a defense lawyer. United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union, said it would not be involved in the case and described the charges as "so abhorrent as to be incomprehensible."

"On this assignment you see a lot of terrible things over the years," said Scott, the sheriff's sergeant. "But this is something none of us had seen before."

[Chinchillazilla]

Whoa, when I read this the first time I missed the photo lab angle. Who the hell a) was still getting film developed in 2008-2011, and (more importantly) b) would take photos of CHILD MOLESTATION to a friggin' photo lab? Thank god this guy is a moron.

[redsaid]

This was on our local new this morning. What the hell took so long and WTF is up with the cockroaches????

[TheMeaningOfItAll]

My ass the kids applied the tape on their own. Where the fuck were the administrators????! How can shit like that go on for so long and no one not have known anything?

[kafka]

Shit like that goes on if no one complains about the teacher. No one complained and he flew under the radar.

[Abroad]

Berndt and his sister owned the small apartment complex where he lived, property records show. There, a neighbor described him as nervous and skittish. He was known to take camping trips alone and generally kept to himself, often listening to classical music inside his apartment, another neighbor said.

Pervert!

[malq]

This was on our local new this morning. What the hell took so long and WTF is up with the cockroaches????

I know huh? It must be part of his fetish. Blindfolded kids with cockroaches climbing all over them while you feed them semen.
That's my idea of a hot event.

[malq]

Shit like that goes on if no one complains about the teacher. No one complained and he flew under the radar.

You are right, but 23 kids and 2 years without anyone talking?
All i can say is parents educate your kids. Tell them what is right and wrong. Tell them the best thing they can do is tell you. Never give a vibe that they will be in trouble for coming to you on anything. Tell them no one can touch them in places. Best of all trust no-one. Wait, this guy is a teacher.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

You are right, but 23 kids and 2 years without anyone talking?
All i can say is parents educate your kids. Tell them what is right and wrong. Tell them the best thing they can do is tell you. Never give a vibe that they will be in trouble for coming to you on anything. Tell them no one can touch them in places. Best of all trust no-one. Wait, this guy is a teacher.

It's hard to think up all the things to warn your kids against. "Don't let your teacher tie you up and play classical music while feeding you 'sweet stuff'" probably isn't on most parents list. I just can't figure out how the shithead convinced all those kids that this was part of the curriculum... and how not one kid ever mentioned it when asked "What did you do in school today?".

[Silvahalo]

This is so disgusting. I'd have the fucker's shit for this.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

None of the elementary school students ever complained about Berndt's behavior, authorities said.
[...]

"If it wasn't for the film processor, this could still be continuing today," said Lt. Carlos Marquez of the Los Angeles County sheriff's department.

Since 1980 California has required that film processors contact police immediately if they see photos they suspect depict child abuse. Although many people have switched to digital cameras, police agencies say they still get several such calls a year from film technicians.

Since the discovery, the school district fired Berndt and police put him under surveillance.

Berndt was arrested Monday at his home in Torrance and was being held on $2.3 million bail.

Some parents picking up their pre-kindergarteners at the school on Tuesday complained that officials at Miramonte Elementary School in South Los Angeles should have notified them when the photos were found.

"My concern is why, if the principal knew this in advance, why didn't he inform us?" said Gloria Polanco, the mother of a second- and a third-grader. "How long has he been doing this?"
[...]

Police recommended the children in the photos be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. There also may be more victims given the length of time that Berndt taught at the school, Marquez said.

Authorities could have arrested Berndt on misdemeanor charges when the investigation began but chose to build a stronger felony case, Marquez said. He could get a life sentence if he is convicted.

At first, neither the parents nor the children believed they had been molested, so there wasn't much reaction, according to sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. It was only after the matter of the semen was raised that they became alarmed.

Berndt, who has no previous arrest record, was placed under surveillance and is not believed to have had contact with children during the investigation.
[...]

The incidents occurred during school hours but not all the children were his students, Marquez said.

"The reason some of the kids are not his students, per se, is that during the lunch breaks or recess, he'd go out to the playground and entice them back to the classroom," Marquez said.

"They didn't know they were being violated in that manner," he said. "They just thought it was a game."
[...]

http://www.ksbw.com/r/30350765/detail.html

[Whisper]

Not 2.3 million,,,,23 million
$23 million bond set for teacher accused of 'bondage' photos of kids
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/01/justic...html?hpt=ju_c1

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The Los Angeles Unified School District launched an internal investigation to determine how a teacher accused of bizarre acts of lewd conduct against the students in his classroom escaped suspicion for so long.

The investigation comes as detectives said Wednesday that several new potential victims have come forward and parents at Miramonte Elementary School demanded to know why the alleged crimes went undetected for five years.

"How do I make sense out of the fact that this took place over a number of years and no one seemed to know about that?" L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy said in an interview Wednesday. "I'm definitely trying to understand how someone could not have known."

Deasy and other school officials said they have no records of anyone complaining about former teacher Mark Berndt, 61, who is accused of gagging students with tape, blindfolding them and spoon-feeding his semen to them as part of a "tasting game."

But one woman who identified herself as a former student came forward Wednesday to say that school staff had looked into a complaint made against Berndt in the 1990-91 school year.

In an interview, Marlene Trujillo said she was a fourth-grader in his class at the time, and that she wasn't sure what to make of her teacher's odd behavior.

She said Berndt often moved his hands under his desk, near his lap, at the front of the classroom. She and other students had seen a jar of Vaseline in one of his desk compartments.

Trujillo, a 30-year-old paralegal, said she was called before a school counselor with two other girls after one of them complained about Mr. Berndt's alleged behavior.

"I didn't say much during the meeting," Trujillo said. Finally, the counselor "just told us it's not very good to make stories up. She said it was our imagination. It was never talked about again."

Trujillo said she felt relieved. "I was glad that I didn't get in trouble, that they didn't tell my mom I was part of making up stories."

Berndt had always been kind to her, buying her Hostess pastries, and sending her tapes of the Beach Boys and Christmas cards for several years after she left his class, she said. Despite behavior that she now considers inappropriate, she remembered Berndt as a good teacher who made lessons about the Dewey decimal system, the weather and evolution interesting.

One of her classmates at the time, Nadine Martinez Rodriguez, said she also noticed Berndt's behavior behind his desk.

Martinez, now 30 and a doctoral student at UC Santa Barbara, said she told her mother about it at the time but that her mother didn't take it seriously enough to report to school officials.

When told of the allegations by a reporter Wednesday, Deasy said he would immediately report them to sheriff's investigators.
[...]

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department detectives showed school officials the photos in January 2011, and the district immediately suspended Berndt and later fired him.

It took a year before charges were filed.

During this period, the Sheriff's Department had Berndt under surveillance, law enforcement sources said.

Last January, they found a white substance on a spoon in his classroom. By July, tests had revealed the substance was semen. Detectives followed Berndt to get a sample of his DNA for comparison. Deputies saw Berndt spit on the sidewalk one day and used that saliva to match the semen to him, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing.

Sheriff's officials said it also took months to identify the children in the photos.

"It was horrendously difficult to identify these kids. These events occurred over a space of time and some of their facial features were obstructed by blindfolds and other items," said Sheriff's Chief of Detectives William McSweeney.

Simply placing a notice at school was not an option because it was crucial to get untainted recollections from the child witnesses.

"You must not have any victim cross-contaminate another statement by talk among their families," added Sgt. Dan Scott, who worked on the case.
[...]

Scott said the detectives took great pains to avoid having rumors about the case spread around campus before they could interview the students.

They began with a few preliminary interviews with students in January 2011, chatting generally about the classroom and trying to learn how it worked. "What is a day like in the classroom?" was one question they asked, Scott said.

Then, they started focusing on students who detectives believed were potential victims or knew potential victims.

"You start with narrowest ring those in his class, then third-graders and other years," Scott said.

Finally, detectives began interviewing some students in private, eliciting accounts used in the case against Berndt.
[...]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...447,full.story

[Abroad]

Despite behavior that she now considers inappropriate, she remembered Berndt as a good teacher who made lessons about the Dewey decimal system, the weather and evolution interesting.

a-HA!





Joking aside, I am very sad to know that an engaging teacher who took an interest and inspired interest would betray the trust children and parents showed him so horribly.

[Elfearsandvampireteeth]

Is this why no one complained?http://www.developingteachers.com/tips/pasttips82.htm
There are pages of this "excercise" for teachers so it must be considered an ok teaching practice.

I cannot find it (of course) but there was another teacher (an Asian this time) who is also charged with blindfolding students and "taste testing". That asshole recorded his games on his cell so tht was how he got busted (after an alert mother reported him although there was no out cry from students).

I was telling my kids about "strange behavior" at school that I would need to know about( We have already covered ,numerous times, about touching both by adults and other children) and I mentioned being blindfolded at school and having to eat things and my kids said I was "crazy" and I was weird for suggesting it but two cases within the past week? It aint so far fetched is it!

[Dakota Valkyrie]

I cannot find it (of course) but there was another teacher (an Asian this time) who is also charged with blindfolding students and "taste testing". That asshole recorded his games on his cell so tht was how he got busted (after an alert mother reported him although there was no out cry from students).

I think you're referring to this week's other whacko teacher case: http://www.dreamindemon.com/forums/s...sting-Students

[Whisper]

Complaints About Teacher In Bondage Case Made Years Ago

LOS ANGELES -- An elementary school teacher suspected of taking bizarre bondage-style photographs of children in his class was investigated but not charged in 1994 for allegedly trying to fondle a 10-year-old girl, authorities disclosed Thursday.
The girl claimed Mark Berndt reached toward her genitals during class, but she pushed his hand away, sheriff's Sgt. Dan Scott said.
The alleged incident occurred in September 1993 but wasn't reported by the girl's mother to officials at Miramonte Elementary School until the following January, he said.

[...]

http://www.ksbw.com/education/303608...#ixzz1lHTxMO4v

[Whisper]

Second teacher arrested at L.A. school for 'lewd acts' against pupils

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Another teacher has been arrested at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles on allegations of lewd acts on young pupils, authorities said Friday.

Capt. Mike Parker with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said that Friday's arrest is "quite different" from the arrest earlier this week of another teacher, Mark Berndt. Berndt, 61, was accused of taking bondage photos of more than two dozen students in his classroom, some showing suspected semen-filled spoons at the children's mouths, authorities said.

Investigators from the special victims bureau arrested the second teacher, Martin Bernard Springer, 49, on Friday, Parker told reporters. Springer's arrest came after investigators received "new information" on Thursday morning that led them to the teacher.

Authorities say that the allegations involved two young girls "who were allegedly fondled in the classroom" by the suspect, Parker said.

Springer's bail has been set at $2 million, according to Parker.

Los Angeles County prosecutors are reviewing whether to file charges against Springer, a spokeswoman said Friday. "We'll see have to see how far the evidence goes in the latest arrest," spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told reporters.
[...]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/03/justic...html?hpt=ju_c2

[Whisper]

Los Angeles school rocked by arrest of second teacher on molestation allegations

Deasy said the district has seen an increase in the number of complaints of teacher molestation since news of Berndt's arrest broke, but he provided no figures

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/03...#ixzz1lNLIFbyW

[redsaid]

I wonder how far is this investigation is going to take the police, how many more fuckers they will find.

[misfirefly]

I find this shit terrifiying, my kids in her 1st yr of school.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

One child may be the victim of two Miramonte teachers
She gave her parents photos she said were taken by suspect Mark Berndt, and later said she was touched inappropriately by Martin Bernard Springer.

In 2008, a second-grader at Miramonte Elementary School went home from school and showed her parents two photos she said were taken by her teacher, Mark Berndt.

One photo shows her with two other girls, standing against a wall. The second shows her biting down on a small cookie. A shiny, light-colored substance is faintly visible on top of the cookie.

The parents said they found the photos strange and went to Miramonte's principal at the time to complain. They say the principal looked at the photos but dismissed their concerns, suggesting that the photos might be part of a class project.

The girl was later transferred to the classroom of Martin Bernard Springer. The father said that shortly thereafter, his daughter said Springer touched her on the leg and thigh.

The parents said they put the incidents behind them until last week, when Berndt was charged with 23 acts of lewd conduct against students in his classroom. Berndt, 61, allegedly spoon-fed his semen to children as part of what he called a "tasting game" in which children were blindfolded and, in some cases, gagged with tape. Authorities said they have hundreds of photos he took in the classroom showing the scenes.

Then on Friday, Springer was arrested after two students said he touched them improperly within the last three years.

Law enforcement sources said Saturday that detectives believe the girl whose parents complained was a victim of both Berndt and Springer.

She is one of the two students whose allegations led to Springer's arrest, and detectives have been investigating her accusations against Berndt as well, the sources said.

The detectives have seen records confirming that she was transferred from Berndt's class to Springer's, said sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

The accusations by the second-grader's parents raise more questions about how much officials knew about Berndt's behavior.
[...]

The Times talked to the parents of the second-grader after being contacted by their attorney, Matthew McNicholas, who said he plans to file a claim against the Los Angeles Unified School District next week. They allowed The Times to look at the two photos, which have time stamps on the back that indicate they were developed in August 2008, a few weeks after the girl started second grade.

In the photo with the cookie, the girl is looking up to her left and smiling. On the opposite side of the image, the hand of another child is feeding her the cookie. The father said he was disturbed by the image, although he said his daughter did not seem alarmed.

"I didn't like it at all. I thought, why would a teacher be taking pictures of my daughter?" the father said. The Times is not naming him to avoid identifying his daughter. "I got very upset right then and there."

The father said that when he confronted the principal, the educator said he was "pretty sure there's nothing wrong." The father said he requested that his daughter be switched to a different teacher. The principal replied that it would be very difficult, he said. During the meeting, the principal also asked if the father would give him the photos, but the father said he refused. The principal has since retired and could not be reached for comment.

Unsatisfied, the father stopped sending his daughter to school for a week.

School records provided by McNicholas, the attorney, show that the girl was moved from Berndt's class to Springer's on Sept. 8, 2008.

The father said that after his daughter told him that the teacher touched her, he made a complaint with local police but never heard back from authorities. The Times could not confirm on Saturday that a report had been filed on Springer at that time. Law enforcement sources said they are also looking for evidence that a report was taken.

The girl's parents are the second family to say that Berndt might have provided students with cookies that had semen on them. Last week, the father of one alleged victim told The Times his son was photographed eating a cookie that he thought had semen on top.

The father of the girl photographed with the cookie said that after his wife learned about the charges against Berndt, he found her at home crying on the floor. She showed him the photos of their daughter from 2008, which she had retrieved earlier in the day.

"To be honest, I really don't want to know more," he said. "As a parent, it's very painful. I don't want to know much more."

Last week, L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy launched an internal investigation to determine why Berndt escaped suspicion for so long and whether any other employees are implicated.

Deasy said district officials were working through the weekend. They have compiled Miramonte staff lists going back decades and have begun calling in current and former employees.
[...]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,2044049.story


Cheesy jeezie on a cracker! The fucker was sending pictures HOME with kids?? Was he getting secret jollies out of it?

Top it off with the upset family who "put it all behind them" after not hearing back from the police on complaints. WTF?? If I thought anything was important enough to call the police in the first place, I sure as hell wouldn't just get over it if they didn't call me back.