After two teachers were arrested for molesting students, the school district imposed dramatic measures -- but the public's trust may already be shattered.
Parents and students of Miramonte Elementary School march to the site of a meeting with Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent (LAUSD) John Deasy where he announced that the entire teaching staff of Miramonte Elementary School will be relocated (Reuters)
A few years ago, after a spate of teachers in Las Vegas were arrested for sex-related crimes involving students, I interviewed the human resources director of one of the nation's largest school districts to ask what measures were in place to prevent such grievous abuses of trust.
The district already was fingerprinting potential hires, checking all references and cross-checking with the FBI database to make sure there was no criminal trail that had been masked by a move from one state to another. She told me she wished someone would invent a device that would detect "a black heart" in anyone who would work with children.
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Such a device might have been useful at a Los Angeles elementary school, where two teachers are accused of sexually abusing students -- with some of the allegations stretching back over two decades. Parents demanded action, and this week L.A. Unified Schools Superintendent John Deasy responded by temporarily replacing the entire campus staff at Miramonte Elementary.