By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer | LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/HynfI7
3/29/2012 05:52:14 PM PDT :: Parents will be notified within 72 hours when a teacher at their child's school has been accused of sexual misconduct under a policy adopted Thursday by Los Angeles Unified officials.
The announcement came just hours after district officials confirmed that an unidentified teacher at Sutter Middle School in Winnetka had been removed from the classroom amid allegations of wrongdoing.
The new policy follows calls by San Fernando Valley school board members Tamar Galatzan and Nury Martinez to change how the district notifies parents of abuse allegations.
"This is definitely a move in the right direction," Galatzan said. "It strikes a delicate balance between the rights of parents to know what's going on and the rights of our employees."
Martinez said the 72-hour window will allow the district to communicate with law enforcement to ensure the district's announcement will not interfere with any investigation or potentially harm the victim.
"This new policy will begin the process of rebuilding trust with parents and kids," she said.
The district was blasted by parents at Miramonte Elementary for failing to inform them for more than a year that teacher Mark Berndt was suspected of molesting 23 students.
Officials also withheld information about the arrest last October of Telfair Elementary teacher Paul Chapel on charges of molesting four youngsters. They alerted parents in February after the Daily News wrote about the case.
In both instances, district officials said they'd been told by law enforcement not to comment.
"The spate of cases involving sexual misconduct in recent months has prompted a re-evaluation of our reporting procedures," Superintendent John Deasy said in a statement. "Working closely with local law enforcement, we believe we have come up with a plan that best serves the needs of parents and teachers while not hindering possible criminal investigations."
In notifying parents of abuse allegations, the district typically withholds the teacher's name, grade level and other identifying information. A district spokesman said he expects that practice to continue.
The new policy applies only to teachers and other certificated employee. A separate policy is being developed for teacher's aides, custodians and volunteers/coaches and is expected to be in place by the start of the 2012-13 school year.
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