Miramonte School Scandal: Second Teacher Removed From The Classroom (VIDEO, UPDATED)

LOS ANGELES — A second teacher at an inner-city elementary school where a teacher is accused of committing lewd acts on 23 children was arrested Friday on suspicion of fondling two girls in his classroom.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker said Martin B. Springer, 49, of Alhambra was arrested four days after allegations surfaced against the first teacher, but there was no known connection between the two cases. Springer was being held on $2 million bail.

The expanding case has shocked the nation and thrown a chill into its second-largest school district, with 650,000 students across hundreds of campuses.

Parker said the victims in the second case were about 7 and 8 years old and were fondled once each in a classroom at Miramonte Elementary School during the past three years.

Detectives interviewed Springer and the alleged victims on Thursday and had him under surveillance. He was arrested Friday as he exited a school district building in South Los Angeles, Parker said.

Detectives anticipate that more victims might come forward, he said.

A phone message left at Springer's home was not immediately returned.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy said the district plans to fire Springer next week.

"We are prepared to fire him next week and we'll do that at the next board meeting for inappropriate conduct and inappropriately touching students," the superintendent told KTTV.

In a related development, a lawyer filed a claim against the district stating that he intended to file a lawsuit alleging an unidentified girl ate a sugar cookie laced with the semen of the first teacher arrested, Mark Berndt.

Earlier this week, Berndt, who worked at the school for 32 years, was charged with committing lewd acts on 23 children, ages 6 to 10, between 2005 and 2010. He remains jailed on $23 million bail and could face life in prison if convicted.

Lawyer Raymond Boucher, whose Beverly Hills firm specializes in sexual abuse lawsuits against school districts, religious institutions and hospitals, said the legal claim of behalf of "Jane Doe 1" alleges the district did not take adequate steps to prevent Berndt from repeatedly abusing children after officials received complaints about him.

After news broke early Friday about Springer being removed from the classroom, several parents took their children out of the school.

Ida Santana said her sister called her and told her to pick up her nephew.

"It's hard to leave our kids here," Santana said. "We can't trust the teachers no more. Now there's another teacher."

Santana said the family is unsure where the boy will be going to school from now on.

The development involving the second teacher was made public a day after authorities acknowledged that 18 years ago, a 10-year-old girl claimed Berndt tried to fondle her.

Prosecutors declined to file to charges against Berndt in the 1993 report, saying they didn't have enough evidence. Berndt, who denied the allegation at the time, was never arrested.

The details of that case and other claims by two former students about strange behavior by Berndt surfaced just three days after his arrest.

The allegations raised further questions about why he wasn't disciplined by school officials, who have been lambasted by some parents for waiting a year to reveal that Berndt was suspected of blindfolding children and feeding them his own semen in his classroom in what children were allegedly told was a tasting game.

School officials and investigators said proper procedures were followed to investigate and build a case against the teacher.

The investigation of Berndt began in the fall of 2010 when a film processor became suspicious about the photographs and turned them over to investigators who notified the school district.

Berndt was immediately removed from classwork in January. The Board of Education voted to fire him in a closed session, which he challenged, before resigning.

___

Associated Press writers Christina Hoag, Greg Risling and Raquel Maria Dillon contributed to this report.

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[Wolfman Thomas]

05:09 PM on 02/06/2012

Another Mc Martin witch hunt just arrest all teachers

[Ray Paris]

10:07 AM on 02/06/2012

A year of torture in isolation and death after a year. That will take care of it, other psychos will not do it again once the justice is applied as it should. Our taxes would go to better use too instead of feeding those monsters. Death penalty after a year of daily constant torture

[Wolfman Thomas]

05:55 AM on 02/05/2012

Another Mc Martin Witch Hunt ! How we all forget

[sheepwoman]

03:21 PM on 02/06/2012

Good that you have inside information on this issue - rather than putting the focus on the abuser and wounded kids.

[Wolfman Thomas]

05:57 AM on 02/05/2012

Witch Hunt and leave our teachers alone. Remember the Mc Martins Manhattan Beach CA

[SoCalifTeacher]

11:37 AM on 02/06/2012

How does an employer test for "pervert" before hiring someone?

[LionWoods]

05:28 PM on 02/06/2012

well, look what happens when pervs are hired....

[jzzy55]

05:20 PM on 02/07/2012

Agreed, but there are surely psychological screening methods that could do a better job than a CORI check and a few references. Industry, government and the military use all kinds of customized screening tools. But a) that would be expensive and b) the unions would have to agree to it.

[django707]

08:23 PM on 02/04/2012

Okay, Teabaggers, time to trash the teachers union. Ready? One, two, three...

[Dan Covey]

09:28 PM on 02/06/2012

Explain just what the union has to do with this situation? Not personal opinions or anti teachers feelings , just facts. Thanks for responding and explaining.

[django707]

12:48 AM on 02/07/2012

I was sarcastically responding to all the union bashers taking advantage of this tragic situation to spew their venom.

[django707]

12:49 AM on 02/07/2012

Apologies if I offended. I am very pro teachers and their union.

[Michael Ludin]

06:17 PM on 02/04/2012

these are some twisted fcks! It is sickening.

[chesswizard3]

05:23 PM on 02/04/2012

Many posts here seem to blame the teaching profession itself. Thats rather convenient but unaccurate.Society at large is to blame for our singular focus on "other peoples" crimes or problems such as the war on drugs etc., we get such a barrage of daily news of gangs etc., that when we come across these perversion crimes we are shocked.
Look at the reaction to that poor girl when she first complained of being violated, no one believed her because that sort of thing just did not happen there, so they wanted to believe.
Maybe just maybe one day we will wake up and realize that crime is not limited to red zone zip codes, or professions.

[whitenoise007]

04:51 PM on 02/04/2012

one small positive in this tragedy is that people are demanding accountability from the administration and the district: it's about damn time! teachers are blamed for every failure of this system: but in this case, where the hell were the administrators at this campus? how could these men, particularly berndt, do this over an extended period not a single administrator notice? why are they not in classrooms, talking to students, monitoring their campuses? that's what they're paid for; that's what many of them get six-figure incomes for; not to sit in their offices and push papers.

the district and the bureaucrats have been getting a free ride for a long time: the "liberal" media, the politicians and the small-minded public blame teachers for every ill of this disastrous nanny-state system that is modern day public education. it's too bad that it has to be a tragedy like this to bring their incompetence, systematic apathy and general failure to light; unfortunately, they will probably succeed in deflecting or whitewashing their part in this.

[Dan Covey]

09:36 PM on 02/06/2012

Good comments. I assume you are going to become a school board member so that you can take care of all these situation. Great. I am for you. Go for it!!

[Jose 58]

03:53 PM on 02/04/2012

When you hear an official in LA say they are preparing to fire someone, all their doing is giving that person enough time to quit voluntarily so that they can keep pension and benefits. The union loves it's criminals as much as anyone else.

[randallr01]

03:30 PM on 02/04/2012

Heterosexual perverts! Clearly we must ban Straight Marriage.

[Parade Keegan]

04:17 PM on 02/04/2012

:). Better yet.. No more heterosexual teachers, they should do the same with ministers, reverends and priests too.

[Y3rMawm]

06:52 PM on 02/04/2012

ummm...the priests were molesting boys.

[lletaa]

03:00 PM on 02/04/2012

Before everyone hangs these guys I read where some students said it was bull, that he was a dedicated teacher and never did these things. Remmember the McMartin hoax? And another guy in San Diego was accused and found innocent later suing for millions on false charges. I hate pedophiles but I also hate someone being accused falsely and overzealous people who have already found him guilty.

[Parade Keegan]

09:39 PM on 02/04/2012

Yes and you're right.

[m1jones]

02:42 PM on 02/04/2012

All the staff at this school should be placed on administrative leave and replaced pending an investigation. What were those in charge doing while all this was coming down? Didn't other teachers notice anything unusual about these perpetrators? This looks like a sick administration as well as pedophiles in the classroom.

What is the backstory?

[gov111w]

10:20 AM on 02/04/2012

6 to 10 year olds ?? OMG how do we produce such horrible people in our society...what is wrong with our culture that we foster such educated evil people...???

[omegas3]

09:26 AM on 02/04/2012

Close this school

[Ariana Avitia]

03:29 PM on 02/04/2012

Then they would probably have to close a lot of schools.

[fwxer]

09:21 AM on 02/04/2012

There are so many factors involved in the teaching profession that it would take a panel of true geniuses (not political appointees or teacher union representatives) to correct it's problems. The myth that all teachers enter the profession because they want to help children is false. Many enter the profession because they can't compete in any other occupation. A few, mostly men, are pedophiles looking for access to a source of victims. Others are attracted by the clean work environment (coal miners make more money, how many quit teaching to work in the mines?), job security, medical benefits, extended vacation periods (summer, spring and holidays) and retirement benefits. Many of my college classmates who flunked out of engineering went into teaching. Many of my high school classmates, who couldn't do anything else, went into teaching (although several became policemen and other government employees). It is interesting that back in the 50's, the teaching establishment was spouting that parents only needed to feed and clothe their children, because parents were to ignorant to teach kids anything, teachers would teach them all they need to know, including social behavior, Now the teaching establishment is crying about the degradation in student behavior and saying, "we can;t do it alone." These are just a few of my observations.

[whitenoise007]

04:41 PM on 02/04/2012

"clean work environment?" have you entered an LAUSD, or any inner city campus lately? "extended vacation periods?" a good teacher, especially in the core subjects, will work weekends and holidays--and we don't get paid for it.

many teachers enter the "profession" for the same reasons that people enter any profession: they enjoy the work; they need a job (why is that criteria somehow "bad" when it comes to teaching, when it's a reality in our world?); they like the subject area; .

the myth that exists is that teachers should be somehow super human: psychologist, probation officer, social worker, parent, police officer, baby sitter, administrator, oh, and teacher.

my response to your small-minded perspective digresses from the issue here: this man is a monster--they exist in every profession, every walk of life, every race, nationality and creed.

[Michael Ludin]

06:19 PM on 02/04/2012

true, his activity has nothing to do with teaching -- he is a monster!

[Y3rMawm]

07:03 PM on 02/04/2012

In most other professions, we can choose not to conduct business, for whatever reason. Here, the parents have few choices.

[sunny32127]

04:16 PM on 02/06/2012

The "we can't do it alone" is coming from the dedicated teachers who want to make a difference. Do you know what it's like to see children come in everyday underfed, underclothed, and seriously underbathed, but not to the point of abuse - so we can't do anything about it! We are paid (sort of) to teach, but end up being mothers, confidantes, nurses, social workers, etc. I went to school to teach and love my job. I hate that I am underpaid to the point that my children receive free lunches, but I also hate being lumped in with the people who truly don't belong in the profession! Unfortunately, there are sickos everywhere - is it any wonder many of them gravitate towards an environment full of children? Keep things in perspective and remember how many giving, loving teachers are looked down upon through no fault of their own when all they wanted to do was make a difference in a few children's lives. We don't deserve that. Place blame where it belongs and don't stereotype - just like we try to teach our children.