Allegations of inappropriate conduct have led to the removal of a math teacher at Los Angeles’ Mount Gleason Middle School, according to reports.
Los Angeles Police have not identified the teacher to the media, nor has he been arrested. HLN affiliate KTLA reports that he was an eighth-grade algebra teacher.
In a statement released late last week to area parents and obtained by HLN affiliate KNBC, the Los Angeles Unified School District said the instructor had been removed "as a result of recent allegations.” The district did not elaborate.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the letter continued: "Crisis counselors and psychiatric social workers are available to work with students that might be impacted by the removal of the teacher. The district takes each and every reported act of misconduct seriously. We are committed to aggressively pursuing each case to determine the truth and, if necessary, initiate the appropriate disciplinary measures."
The investigation may be connected to improper images found on the teacher's mobile phone, KNBC reported.
Three children went to police, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. Lydia Grant, a parent representative on the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council, told the newspaper that the teacher had been found with inappropriate photos of a female student on his cellphone.
"She didn't know he was taking pictures," Grant told the paper. "It snowballed from there."
On Monday, the district's superintendent John Deasy planned to send a video calling for "special training" for teachers and staff of the nation's second-largest school district, KNBC reported. On Friday, Deasy, in a video posted online, disclosed that the district broke state law by not notifying a state it was firing a teacher under investigation for alleged lewd acts.
The school district, rocked by several cases of alleged lewd conduct connected to teachers in recent weeks, is considering a 72-hour grace period to notify parents about abuse claims.
In the resulting firestorm, parents have accused school officials of not being forthcoming with information about the cases. "People were angry, and rightfully so," Nury Martinez, a board member, told KNBC. “"It's a problem," Martinez said. "It just looks like we're covering things up."
Read more: Teacher removes entire staff after abuse charges
On Monday, KCAL reported that yet another California educator, this time a teacher’s aide, has been arrested on charges of having alleged sexual contact with a boy.
Nicole Ethel McMillen, who works with the Tustin Unified School District, was arrested Sunday, one day after parents of a 14-year-old went to police after the boy told them, KTLA reported.
The case is the latest of several in the wake of the January arrest of former Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt, who is charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct after authorities found bondage photos involving children.
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