Students in the Los Angeles Unified School District return to their school in South Los Angeles Thursday to a completely new staff.
Administrators say they do not want any more "surprises" after a sex abuse scandal rocked Miramonte Elementary School this week.
In the latest development, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that in June 2009, the mother of a fourth-grade boy discovered love letters from a Miramonte Elementary School teacher’s aide, now being identified as Areceli Luisjuan.
The mother says she brought them to the attention of school and law enforcement, but says her concerns were dismissed.
One passage in the purported letter read: "When I was writing this letter, I was crying. My heart was breaking into pieces. Oh! I didn't tell you that I like when you put your arm around my shoulder, and if I told you not to do that it's because I don't want to put you in trouble, but I like it. ... Read the letter and throw it away. I don't want your mom or brother to find it."
That story comes just two day after a second teacher was fired from The Los Angeles Unified School District. Martin Bernard Springer, 49, was charged with three felony counts of lewd acts upon an underage girl.
Last week, former Miramonte teacher Mark Berndt, 61, who's been teaching at the school for 30 years, was arrested and accused of taking bondage photos of more than two dozen students in his classroom. Authorities now say hundreds of more photos have been found in their investigation.
Everyone from current custodians to teachers at Miramonte are being relocated indefinitely, school officials say.
“The people here in this community are outraged,” CNN en Español correspondent Jacqueline Hurtado told Dr. Drew Wednesday night. “They still don't know why the school never notified the parents that this was going on, especially when they were investigating these accusations for a year, and they want to know why the school never said anything.”
Hurtado added that many parents expressed that since it's a minority, socio-economically distressed environment, they have been the ones singled out.
“It’s also interesting to mention is that in the Hispanic culture, they see the teacher as parents, so they put all the trust in these teachers,” she said. “We had a chance to see some of these children. They were crying ... they've gone through a drastic change.”
Keith Davidson, an attorney who’s representing three Miramonte students added, “We've seen drastic differences in the behavior of their children -- everything from catastrophic weight gain, diminishing grades in school, depression, anxiety, and nightmares.
He also noted, “there was a culture of silence, if you will, at Miramonte School, and a culture of silence that we see in a lot of these social systems."
Dr. Drew responded, “In my world, you're as sick as your secrets.”
Staffers and students will be questioned as part of the ongoing criminal investigation.
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