LAUSD Changes Policies
After several sex-abuse cases surfaced recently, the procedure in which the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) reports allegations of misconduct is coming under fire and being revised.
Superintendent John Deasy is reinvestigating old cases to make sure no reports of misconduct slip through the cracks. He ordered staff to pour over the files of LAUSD teachers who have been disciplined for misdemeanor anytime in the last four years. These cases will then be reported to California's Commission on Teaching Credentialing.
Armando Vallez has a grandson in a LAUSD school. He says more accountability is long overdue.
"They have to be extra careful, there's a lot of people working with them," Vallez said. "There are criminals. They should have been doing that before."
The new policy change will reinvestigate teachers who have had a complaint filed against them. Complaints could include missing too much class to sexual misconduct.
One South Los Angeles principal is confident in his staff.
"The good thing about our school is we're smaller than most high schools," Principal Erik Mata said. "We know the parents, we know the kids and we know the teachers. We're very careful as to who we hire."
Regardless, he said the Orthopaedic Hospital Medical High School has been taking precautions.
"We just retained the faculty and staff on reporting child abuse procedures," Mata said.
But not every parent feels completely reassured.
"Kids are the most beautiful thing that can happen," Amaria Amascuez said. "The kids are everything and for somebody to hurt them like that it's really, really sad."
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