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Subscribe to RSSMark Berndt, the teacher at the center of the shocking Miramonte child sex-abuse scandal, was paid $40,000 by the Los Angeles Unified School District in June of 2011 as part of a settlement. KNBC-TV's Joel Grover reports.
Los Angeles Unified School District paid the teacher at the center of the Miramonte child sexual abuse scandal $40,000 as part of a settlement in the wake of accusations of classroom behavior deemed “immoral” and “unprofessional” as well as a claim of “evident unfitness for service.”
In a financial settlement reached in June of 2011, the Los Angeles Unified School District paid Mark Berndt $23,980.10 in back pay and $16,019.90 in legal fees, according to documents obtained in a joint investigation by 89.3 KPCC and NBC4.
Under the agreement, Berndt, 61, is entitled to his full pension and retirement health benefits.
Among the accusations levied against Berndt in an administrative hearing:
- blindfolding students and allowing himself to be blindfolded;
- taping several students’ mouths as well as his own;
- spoon-feeding students “an unknown cloudy-colored liquid substance”;
- and feeding students cookies with “an unknown cloudy-colored liquid substance.”
Berndt “exhibited poor judgment, unprofessional and immoral conduct” during the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years, according to an Accusation and Statement of Charges filed by the district.
Full Coverage | About Miramonte | Timeline of Events
The former third-grade teacher also “touched several students by placing his arms around them,” according the document.
The allegations were levied in a proceeding before the Office of Administrative Hearings, a quasi-judicial court that hears administrative disputes.
Read the original story, watch video on NBCLosAngeles.com
Under the terms of the settlement, Berndt, who had been suspended without pay after teaching at Miramonte for 30 years, was retroactively reinstated to “paid status.”
The settlement, signed by Berndt, his attorney and an attorney for the district, also stipulates that “neither of the parties admits or concedes any of the claims, defenses, or allegations that were raised.”
The deal opened the door for Berndt to receive his full district pension and health benefits.
The district first started looking to get rid of Berndt about a year ago. In February of 2011, the district suspended Berndt from his teaching position at Miramonte and notified him that they intended to fire him.
In March, he objected to the dismissal and requested a hearing, which was set for October.
But in June, Berndt and the district settled.
The case first came to the public’s attention in January, when Berndt was arrested and held on $23 million bail for allegedly committing felony molestation with 23 children ages 6 to 10.
In early February, a second Miramonte teacher, Martin Springer, 41, was arrested on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a child.
Several days later, it came to light that former teacher’s aide Ricardo Guevara was convicted and sentences to 15 years in prison in 2005 for committing lewd acts with children.
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy shut down the school for two days and moved the entire staff to another school that is not yet open. Miramonte reopened on Wednesday with an entirely new staff.
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Wow...only $40,000...the school district got him away cheaply !
it's not the $40K that fries me.... it's that life time pension, and full medical! what a crock!!
Hopefully, it will be a very, very short lifetime. Each parent should sue him separately, to make certain he never has 2 cents to rub together.
This is what unions do... get money for these perverts?? This is why CA is broke! Harm a child and still get paid. This clown should be in jail! Not getting lifetime medical coverage.
"Yew caint fahr me, I'm gunna call my yunion rep and sue yor a** fer wrongful termination!"
This article doesn't mention involvement of the union. I wonder if NBC even tried to get an answer to that question? It would be good for the people of California to know whether or not the union provided help with regard to protecting this pedophile
If I did something like this in my job, I would be fired. No suspension, no hearing, no settlement.
I don't really mind about him getting his pension. He should probably get it for whatever time he had put in when he is old enough. If a person would forfit their pension if they were fired, then companies would find some reason to fire someone and never pay the pensions.
But hopefully, he will be spending the rest of his life in jail, so he will not have much chance to spend that pension, and get that medical care.
I don't think the union protected this man, try the principal of the school and the counselor. It is stated that many children went to the counselor and were told to stop making up stories. How is the union involved.
As it stands, he is accused of doing this, and thus entitled to his money if he was not fired. He earned that money. If you think it is wrong that he gets his money and medical, take it up with the authorities in California. Also, if the parents were really concerned, why not go to the police whether they are legal or not? I'm not blaming the victim, but are you really going to just let this man have his job after all the stories going around him? Apparently one parent didn't take no for an answer and went to the police where he was suspended for a year while the investigation was going on and then arrested. Despite whether this man did it or not, he is entitled to a court hearing, and representation.
wow man, i was going to post something about how obvious it it that the union is involved in protecting scumbags like this, but sure enough i find a person defending both this rapist and the union that protected him, amazing, utterly amazing. America please abolish this union that took us from number one in the world to lagging behind countries that were third world a decade ago. their corruption is so evident that even an American public school student could see it.
Having that Santorum nutcase, Gingrich a depraved person, and Romney who wouldn't know his right shoe from his left, now we have the repub/tparty screwies tying up this article with their hate without any proof of this teacher's lewdness behavior. It was parental "My kid was touched more than your kid." These people have nothing better to do than try to outdo themselves. You all belong together.
Don't forget the photographic "proof".
Yeah...I guess the photos aren't proof enough to prevent a puerile diatribe on Republican candidates for office.
You either have fantastic teachers that are overworked and underpaid, or you have horrifically bad teachers getting paid to do nothing even in the wake of disgusting behavior. Who's responsible for this kind of crap?
Um, unions.
One word> UNIONS
Typical GOP rant... I don't see the word UNION mentioned anywhere in the article... they were simply looking for the fastest way to get rid of him (sort of like the Catholic Church... oops... they must have unions to!)... get a life....
The article doesn't need to state the word "Union"...he was handed the $40,000 and will be paid his full pension and receive his health benefits because those are the terms of his UNION contract with the scool system.
This has NOTHING to do with the "GOP" or Repubicans or Fox News or George Bush.
The Union is the reason he got ANY monetary settlement. Had he not been a double parasite (Govt & Union), he would simply have been led out the door. Because of Union protection, he would have their financial and legal backing to put up a court fight. The School system knows they would win, but it is cheaper to pay him off. Had he not been a union parasite, he would have to foot a huge legal bill that he never could have afforded. And NO lawyer would ever take him pro bono for such a case. Unions, protecting child molesters all across the US.
WOW! If that's the case, then the Unholy Roman Catholic Cult must have one of the biggest unions on the planet!
lol @ foxicans... don't need any facts what so ever to support their delusions..
forget the 100s of thousands of teachers that do no wrong that the union makes sure gets paid fairly, has decent benefits, and protection against wrongful termination....
Because this one man did something bad all unions are evil should burn and we should be like communist china with no unions, 35 cent wages, 35 hour work days, and no benefits....
are we going to apply the same Fox news lunacy logic to all the professions where a bad apple is found... all teachers are molesters? every department a corrupt cop is found is criminal? Throw out the baby with the bath water?... such a broken logic
Mire, it's not about the 100's of thousands of teachers that do no wrong. This particular issue is about a teacher that is most likely a pedophile according to the facts coming out about what he did to who knows how many children. It's not left versus right. Asking whether or not the union aided this accused pedophile is important in that we need to see whose side the union is on. Is the union there to protect the teachers regardless of their behavior? I'm willing to bet those 100's of thousands of teachers that do no wrong, whether they be Democrats or Republicans, are more interested in protecting the children from teachers such as this, than having their union protect a pedophile teacher with their union dues. Now before you open your leftist namecalling playbook to respond, I own and operate a union construction company and I voted for Obama. I do regret my Obama vote now though.
the union has nothing to do with helping the kids, they dont work for the best interest of the kids, they dont represent the kids, im not saying this out of hatred for unions, or teachers or anything, its a simple fact. the responsibility of the union is to get the best deal for employees from employers, in this case its teachers and government, the idea that the teachers union is working for the kids is not only laughable its disgusting, since the union is what has degraded our education system over the past few decades, taking it from number one to 20th or worse in some areas, while at the same time making it the most expensive in the world. its not because unions are evil, or because unions or teachers hate children, many teachers are good people who care very much about the kids. but dont confuse them with the unions, the union has one purpose, get its members (whoever they are) the most pay for the least work, the most benefits for the least cost etc, thats not an exaggeration, its not blame and its not wrong for them to do it, its what they exist for. unfortunately in the case of the teachers union, us is teachers, and them is the government, or more specifically the kids that the gov represents and that the teachers ultimately work for. all of this wouldnt even really be a problem if the system was allowed to balance itself, but the problem with unions in America is that they use nationwide dues (i.e. millions of dollars) to buy off politicians and write the very laws that apply to their trade, for autoworkers, whatever, we pay more for cars, ok fine, for schools, unacceptable, because the kids lose out in the deal, no one represents them, least of all with million dollar lobbies.
The Teachers Union is put here to serve its interests; not the interests of the teachers or the students.
Mire...
Does your same rule apply to the person (DMorgan) whose post appears right above yours...or is that slam against the entire Catholic Church just another piece of 'Fox News lunacy logic' ???
The entire Catholic Cult deserves to be slammed. It is the most foul, disgusting, contemptible, child-raping-enabling cult on earth. The complicity and responsibility for what has happened to tens of thousands of children lays at their feet, and goes right to the top. The mindless followers in denial -- who continue to send it money and feed the child-raping machine -- are just as complicit. The rape in that foul cult continues and everyone involved knows about it.
I have met a few very nice Catholics that are very smart, some of which are priests. I am Mormon, so don't use the all Catholics stand up for Catholics card with me. I am telling you this to say that the whole Catholic church should not be slammed, only the people in it who do bad things. I'm sure it's this way in most religions. The few make a bad name for the many. I really hate whitewashing, the all or nothing principle.
Everyone at this school needs to be fired, and the top level employees need to be charged with a litany of crimes. They covered up crimes of this pervert in their play court room. A dysfunctional system from bottom to top. The school district will in all likelihood be bankrupt at the conclusion of the civil and criminal trials.
He should not have to have been paid. He's lucky he's not in JAIL.
He will receive every single dime that his contract says he will receive.
Remember - innocent until proven guilty.
Why isn't he in jail???????????????????????????
LSH -- is the trial over? Has it even started?
How in the WORLD do you commit these kinds of acts and walk away with back pay, legal fees paid, AND a pension?! Oh the twisted world we now live in! I only hope and pray that the people of this district speak out long and hard against this unbelievable decision. Whoever agreed to this needs to be removed immediately (without back pay, legal fees, and pension). You can't even make up this kind of stuff that is REALLY happening today!
Want to bet they got a bonus!
This is what liberalism dictates. This is California, the state that gave us Pelosi, Boxer, et al... The state whose unicorn farm concepts of how to deal with technology and kookoo's nest way of buying energy threaten to infect the whole country. Nowhere else would this guy be walking free. Nowhere, perhaps outside of Saudi Arabia. Are you beginning to see the connections now? are the parts falling in to place? How's that hopey changey thing doing so far?
bubba...
He gets the $40,000...the pension...and his health bennies.
But there's a solid chance he won't be receiving a bonus this year !
California has one of the highest sales taxes, highest state income taxes, and some of the hiighest utility rates, and many other fees, licenses, etc. The reason the "state" is constantly broke is the taxpayer ripoff of public criminal pensions, the criminal pay(for many), the criminal retirement age, the criminal double dipping - where one can be pensioned from one or two "gov't jobs", then collect salary for another, the most days off, some of the highest paid "teachers" who along with the "government employees" can retire in their 50's, have tons of paid days off, paid vacations, some have summers off, etc.
The private unions are real unions between 2 bargaining entities with opposite and similar needs and goals. The so-called "public unions" are bs, often raising pay, recommending criminal "bonuses" by bootstrapping the highest pay they can find to their current pay scale and raising their pay regardless of the economy. The "public employees" are now, with all their criminal benefits on the backs of the beleaguered taxpayers, paid more than the private employees, with far more benefits and paid time off, who many times don't have all these criminal benefits, including total healthcare. Let them go bankrupt and start over with a new system that doesn't bleed the taxpayer dry.
They live in a fantasy world, and the politicians are for the most part, overreaching to be crooks. Now in California they are asking for a higher sales and income tax, as if that's the problem solver. The education level with these highly paid "teachers" is not as good as the 60's in production, and they are for the most part much overpaid, counting their retirement, days off, health benifits, pensions, etc.
The citizens should force them to provide services at the current budget, and trim their outrageously excessive demands to fund their criminal pay, pensions, and benefits. They constantly say they need more pay and benefits to attact "good" candidates, but the record shows this is bs. Either a person is dedicated at a reasonable rate or they're not. Higher education in college has turned into a huge cash cow for administrators and others. This is a bizarre situation and leads to gross inequities for the private citizen, who, if lucky, gets up to $2,000 a year on social security, retiring at over 65 or older, while these so-called public workers retire at anywhere from who knows what, say $25,000 to several hundred thousand dollars per year guaranteed on the back of the citizens who are struggling to find money to pay their minimal existence. Something has to happen. No one was picked up by the government when Enron happened. If they can't live within a reduced budget, give them a choice of leaving or staying, and keep the services, instead of multiple pot holes, lack of fixed infrastrucure, and the other things that pass for "government" these days. Most would gladly stay, even if they complain they wouldn't.
I'm talking about the people who let him get the $40,000 bet they get bonuses!
A far cry above that cesspool that has given us Bush, Perry, et al...
Wow, after Ken Lay (at al) -- you people are hardly the ones to be throwing stones.
Oh, and in the moments when you arent crying about how America needs to be a BuyBull Theocracy, you always manage to use, as your comparisons, those countries that are strangled by religious theocracy. Oh, the irony...
Well, the hopey changey thing -- after the Dumbya Bush disaster threw this country off a cliff -- is potentially, finally starting to improve things. But, as most of the uneducated seem to always forget: it takes longer to rebuild than it does to destroy. And after Cheney/Bush took 8 years to wreck this country, why do you think it would turn-around any faster than it took your clowns to ruin it?
Why is it the liberals always seem to fall back on "Bush was worse". Give us a break. He's gone (or did you not know?) After the last three years, millions of us are missing W more every day!
This makes me so angry. There is NO REASON why the district should have settled this case... allowing for us to pay his cushy retirement. This entire case disgusts me and the response by the teachers union and the district upsets me to my core.
i am a retired teacher and find this man deplorable. he is a blight on the profession and i feel that it is egregious that this molester is getting his pension.
If you were part of a teacher's union, then you helped support this behavior, and only have yourself to blame.
@LB Then I can blame you for Chinas build up in arms because you buy Chinese goods? What a stupid comment.
I totally agree.
Amazing. This POS get his jollies and rocks off molesting children AND gets a nice payout on top of it!
wow!!! NEED I SAY MORE?
Why is he not being prosecuted ? !! If he had done those things to my child, it would not be a good thing for this freak. It seems to me that the school officials are also just as guilty. Is this a commonwealth state ? If so they need to charge him accordingly for his crimes !
He can get away with it because of the liberals run CA... But if you hurt the pervert THEY will arrest YOU for hurting the sicko.. SAD
You are spot on. Obama will make the Department of Education oversea and make sure all the union rules are adhered to. More left wing liberal thinking.
if he would have done this thing to my child, I am sure I would end up in jail or worse. Sometimes if the law doesn't do you've just got to do it yourself.
Boy oh Boy How great it is to have a Job where you get paid with Tax Payer's Dollar's. There is no Better Job in this country. These official's saw fit to pay this Alleged Pervert to Quit his job and keep his pension too. In the private sector you would get your Ass kicked out the door and Zip, Nada, Zilch, Nothing, for your compensation. They feed on our our hard earned Tax dollar's like Pig's at a slop trough.
This is as bad as the church abuse coverups. The administrators knew he was a perv and thought they could hush it up by paying him off. All those administrators must be removed. Who else have they swept under the carpet?
donklops, at least they got rid of him. The church just kept transferring the molesters to different areas, or back to the Vatican, which is a separate country, no extradition from there. I have to agree, who ever agreed with this settlement should be fired, but they won't be, they are administrators.
Penn State cleaned house all the way to the top. These LAUSD administrators are definitely culpable and deserved to be punished.
and Sally Ann... You don't think pricipals transfer bad teachers so they don't have to deal with the fallout? I hope this gets the attention from the media that was focussed on the Catholic Church because the problem in our schools is most certainly as pervasive.
“Only in America, we can dream as big as we
want to (and act like heathens)". How
do you get away with such an odious crime and get rewarded for it?
As a teacher and a union rep...if found guilty, he should loose his pension and retirement benefits. He'll be in jail anyway, sucking off the state....his pension and retire should revert to the state for his upkeep.
It does sound as if the district was trying to keep this quiet and swept under the rug. Why else would they agree to this settlement otherwise? Hopefully there are now protocols in place to prevent this and protect the children. The district definitely has some explaining to do. I, too, would be outraged if I lived there.
I do not condone any behavior this poor excuse for a human has done---but everybody is all up at arms at the teachers-and their unions--and yet still don't get nearly as angry at the bankers and their pay+bonuses!!! They hae also harmed many, many people with the teacher-in-the news.
That said--I hope the law goes after that man and his conviction is imminent. He will lose any and all benefits he is currently collecting. And good riddance to him. I'm glad his phota and true name is out there. It will make it harder for him to hide.
Only an idiot or someone who was told by counsel that they had a legal obligation that could not be broken would pay severance pay to this guy. Whatever happened to consequences? I'm betting an educator made this decision, as no one with real world experience would have caved to this craziness. As for retirement pay...forfeited based on immoral behavior.
So molest children, and then force the employer to PAY YOU TO QUIT. Oh, and get full pension & medical too.
This is what unions are all about. It is disgusting.
No, that is not what unions are about. Because you have a lousey teachers union, you lump sum all unions together? If so, are you including the Dr's and lawyers also? Yes, they do have a union, they all pay dues, AMA or the Bar Association.
What is really disgusting is the non involment of the parents, which most of are illegals who they and their kids should not be here.
Once this man is tried and found guilty it is hoped that the school district and the union will recover any and all expenses and payments. If there are agreements that allow compensation for unlawful behavior they should be renegotiated, but he is presumed innocent until . . . .
Certainly neither schools nor unions want to reward bad behavior; if convicted this low life should have all assets seized.
Getting a job in the goverment or any public job is like hitting the lottery for a person in the private sector.Most can retire by the age of 52 if you get in right out of college or high school and then collect 80 percent of your pay and also liftime health care for the rest of your life.They can do almost anything they like and never get fired.My daughter had a professer at a state college that told them he could molest a five year old boy right outside the college and still not loose his job.All of this b.s. is supported by the Democrats.When are the people of this counrty going to stand up and say they have had enough.All Obama has done in the last 3 years is divide this country.I pray to God that anybody but him is running this country next year.
You could kill a kid in the classroom and get full retirement/pension (and probably a bonus to go "quietly")
"A man burns down his house, kills himself and his two kids inside with him"
claims a recent article I had read. Did President Obama have anything to do
with this too? How in the name of everything holy can you relate this article
back to President Obama! Are you sober, the loathing has gotten so bad that
anything despicable or immoral gets blamed in some convoluted way… back to our
President? Wow...shame on you.
First, let me say that I am as outraged as the rest of you about this child abuse as the rest of you. I am a grandma and would personally strangle anyone who laid a hand on any of my grandchildren or any other child. This guy should be thrown into the nearest prison and the guards look the other way. He deserves everything he might get.
However, I would like to point out that this mess with the laws, pensions, unions has been going on a lot longer than Obama has been on this earth, much less president. Please do not blame him for everything......... Go WAY, WAY back and be honest. These problems are endemic to the human population: GREED and CYOA. Everyone who has worked for the government in any way, for any party whatsoever, has fought for the most generous pensions they could get, free insurance, etc. etc. etc. BTW, the 80 percent pensions, free insurance etc. are no longer available (except for congress, who get 100%). These were remnants left from when federal (and state) employees worked for very low wages. They were just more examples of what the government (AND A GOOD NUMBER OF PRIVATE COMPANIES) did. They paid poorly at the time, pushing the big payoff to the future, for pensions they hoped they would never have to pay. But we old folks fooled them and lived long enough to retire. Now, a lot of PRIVATE COMPANIES are finding creative ways of passing the pension responsibilities to the government.
For the past many years, federal employees have been participating in 401K-type plans like everyone else and a lot of them were wiped out when the stock market crashed, just like everyone else. They also contribute a lot to their insurance coverage.
I cannot speak for California school systems, laws, etc. because I don't know anything about them. (Bet most of the people on this thread don't know either.) I will bet that a lot of rules will change now! But, in writing the rules, I don't think anyone EVER thought that they would be used by a blatant child sex abuser. NO ONE could imagine such a thing happening......... but nothing can surprise us any more, the news is just full of this kind of behavior. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!
This is why many people sometimes take matters into their own hands even if it means going to prison for the rest of their lives!! Individuals like this scum bag need to be wiped out from the face of this earth! On top of what he is accused of doing to innocent children, he gets $40K, and gets to enjoy his pension and benefits? Something is just terribly wrong with this country!
Whomever is responsible for this should be FIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. But , of course, they will probably be promoted.
The dirty, rotten cesspool of LAUSD+Unions+LA politics/Government...........The only "winning move" is not to play (home/private school)
This is a perfect example of what is wrong with our school administrators. Get money to leave? Ridiculous.
Pay him through the end of the day and give him a box to clean out his desk.
if any parent doesnt sue him and the school on behalf of the students, then they too should be considered in agreement with the pervert.
Don't worry too much. Once the parents get through with him he won't have the money anymoe.