Parents To Sue L.A. School Over Sexual Abuse, School Replaces Entire Staff
SAMBOLIN: In a dramatic move, a Los Angeles school has replaced its entire staff to contain the community's outrage. But the backlash is intensifying at Miramonte Elementary School. That's just south of downtown Los Angeles. It is here that two teachers are being accused of sexually abusing their young students. So to give it some context, it's worth noting the students here are mostly minorities, specifically Latino. Most from working-class families. The neighborhood, far from upscale. So here's the deal. The school reportedly first got a complaint about one of the accused teachers, Mark Berndt, as far back as 20 years ago. He's the one on the left. But Berndt wasn't removed from the classroom until last January. Then came news of a second teacher, Martin Springer, arrested for allegedly fondling two young girls in class. We have CNN legal contributor Paul Cowen (ph) standing by to talk about the legal implications here, and Casey Wian, live from L.A. with the latest details. So, Casey, I want to start with you. If you can clear something up for us. We noticed the superintendent was very careful with his words. He never mentioned the school staff was fired. So is the school replacing all of the staff temporarily?</s>CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not exactly temporarily, Zoraida. What's happening is the entire staff at Miramonte Elementary is going to be taken out of that school, retrained and reassigned to a school that is now being -- is still under construction. A new staff will be brought in. A staff that has been pre-screened, according to the school district, will be brought in when classes resume at that school on Thursday, Zoraida.</s>SAMBOLIN: All right. I want to go over the timeline here, because it's rather interesting. Berndt was first investigated back in the early 1990s. The most recent investigation that we have here began in October of 2010. He was not removed from the classroom until last January. Was Berndt allowed back into the classroom after that? This is mind-boggling to understand that he could be in a classroom again with children.</s>WIAN: Well, actually, he was, believe it or not, allowed back into the classroom after he was removed. The district tells us, though, it was just for a half hour. That he was in the presence of another staff member and that no students were in the classroom at the time. He was allowed back in to receive his personal effects. His firing from the district is actually under appeal. So, believe it or not, even if he is convicted of these allegations, he still stands to collect his school district pension for the rest of his life, Zoraida.</s>SAMBOLIN: Now we understand that 98 percent of the population there is Hispanic. And I was listening to a mom who was very concerned about what was happening at the school. And she said that if this had happened in a Beverly Hills neighborhood, for example, that they would have responded immediately and removed that teacher and addressed the situation with the children. Is there any explanation about that?</s>WIAN: Well, just to be clear, Beverly Hills is a different school district. So who knows how they would have handled the situation. But that's what a lot of parents are saying. They do believe that if it was in a more affluent neighborhood, that maybe these allegations would have been caught earlier. Parents do concede, and community leaders do concede, including a former California state senator who was addressing these parents outside the school yesterday, that silence by the parents may have been a contributing factor. Because so many of these families are immigrant families, many of them coming from Mexico, where teachers are often looked at as almost second parents, looked at as the status of doctors where they are often beyond reproach, beyond question. And that is why some of these parents may have not questioned some of the behavior and some of the things that their children may have been telling them. So there may have been a cultural issue that actually contributed to this abuse allegedly going on for so long, Zoraida.</s>SAMBOLIN: And do you think because of that cultural issue, that perhaps also they were scared to contact the police?</s>WIAN: That's a possibility. We haven't heard that from any parents, but the reality is, some of these parents are likely in the country illegally and have a distrust of the police. They also have a distrust of the police because of their experiences in their home countries. So that could have been a contributing factor.</s>SAMBOLIN: All right, Casey Wian, live for us in California. Thank you very much for that. At least 10 families are already preparing to sue the teachers and the school district calling what happened a massive cover-up. The family's lawyers say that number could grow.</s>RAYMOND BOUCHER, ATTORNEY: There's no question there's a significant number of additional kids over the last 30 years who were sexually abused or mistreated at the school. And I think that number is -- is going to be dwarfed by the actual number of ultimate cases.</s>SAMBOLIN: So let's bring in CNN legal contributor, Paul Callan, who has prosecuted child sex abuse cases. This is just an outrageous story. What kind of a liability could the school face, the district, in a situation like this?</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Zoraida, you're right. It's one of the most shocking cases that I've heard of in a very, very long time. There are 23 students who allegedly were abused by Berndt and there's another two by Springer. Now if this is true, you've got 25 students that we know of at this point. So it's a huge number of potential lawsuits that could be brought against the school district. And these lawyers that we just saw talking at a press conference, if they can establish that the school district knew about this, knew about the propensity of these men to abuse children, and did nothing about it, then the school district will be liable for damages, and very, very substantial damages. But we have to see what can be proven in that regard.</s>SAMBOLIN: We know that even after they found these photos of these alleged victims that Berndt was allowed back in to the classroom with the children.</s>CALLAN: Well, what I found to be very, very disturbing is, you know, the fact pattern is that apparently a photo place saw these bondage pictures of these children. Reported it to the police in October. Now, from October until January of 2012, what happens? Why aren't the police going in and saying get him out of the classroom immediately? Apparently, he's not removed until January. But I would like to know was it the police responsible for that or were they late in notifying school district authorities. That remains to be seen who is at ought here. But somebody's at fault. Then he's not arrested for another year. The arrests just took place recently. During that period of time, even though he wasn't in the classroom, he was living in the community. Apparently, somebody even saw him on a tandem bike ride with a child. How many other children were abused after a one-year investigation of an alleged pedophile occurred? There are some really serious questions and real reason for these parents to be disturbed at this school district in California.</s>SAMBOLIN: What do you make of this decision to go ahead and just remove the entire staff from the school? When I read it at first, I thought well maybe this is in an effort to appease the families, the parents who are just outraged over this, and maybe it's a way to protect themselves to say, no, we're doing everything we possibly can.</s>CALLAN: Well, it's an unprecedented development, I think, to remove 150 staff and teachers, because for the innocent, and the vast majority of them -- maybe all except the two who have been charged, are innocent, they sort of have a cloud hanging our their head, being removed from the school district. The school district is saying we're just doing this for logistical purposes. But I understand why the decision is made. 25 percent of the kids stopped attending class. And I can see how a lot of the parents would say I don't want to send my child back there. The school could be put out of business. So instead of moving all of the children, they decided instead to move the teachers and staff, and I can't criticize them for that. I think, in the end, that may be the sensible way to help this school survive if it can survive these horrific allegations.</s>SAMBOLIN: And I just wanted to clear this up because we brought it up and we didn't really address it. If, in fact, there are some undocumenteds within the school, they should report to the police because they're perfectly safe.</s>CALLAN: Yes, they should absolutely report to the police. It should not affect their status in the United States. There are laws to protect them in this situation. And you know, police authorities want to hear everything here. One of the things we're going to see, Zoraida, as this case proceeds now, there are 1500 students in this district. All 1500 are going to be interviewed by the sheriff's department and the police. How many other allegations will there be? And will they be accurate? Or will sort of hysteria and fear and, you know, they're all little kids, will they be affected? You really need skilled investigators to get to the bottom of this.</s>SAMBOLIN: Paul Callan, as usual, we really appreciate it. Thank you.</s>CALLAN: Thank you, Zoraida.</s>SAMBOLIN: Complicated story there. Turning to the world of politics now, embracing the super PAC. President Obama changes his mind on unlimited campaign contributions. It may mean more money, but will it brand him as a hypocrite? It's "Fair Game," and it's next.