A lawyer for alleged victims at Miramonte Elementary School is implicating a third teacher at the troubled campus where one staffer allegedly fed students his semen and another fondled second-graders. This is like the elementary school from hell. Click below to find out more.
Two female students allegedly abused by teacher Mark Berndt claim their female teacher regularly pulled them out of class and escorted them to Berndt’s door for his twisted games, lawyer Brian Claypool told the Daily News Tuesday.
Berndt, 61, was arrested last week and charged with binding and blindfolding dozens of students and subjecting them to lewd acts for his sexual pleasure between 2005 and 2010, authorities said.
“I believe she aided and abetted him in carrying out abusive acts. I believe she worked in concert with Mr. Berndt,†Claypool said of the third, unnamed teacher. “They had adjoining classrooms, and he’d come in every other day in the middle of the day, and he’d go up to her and whisper in her ear. She’d start giggling and then pick out two pretty girls and walk them over to the door.â€
Claypool said he interviewed both of the girls involved, and they independently corroborated each other’s story. They also told him Berndt regularly acted as the female teacher’s substitute and brought food to her classroom covered with a creamy substance, he said.
“He would tell them, ‘Your teacher will be out again tomorrow, so I’m having a party for you,’†Claypool, who represents five victims in the overall case, said. “He would make food and bring in for kids and say, ‘Don’t tell your parents.’ He made homemade cookies with semen as the cream and fed it to the kids.â€
Investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have not publicly identified any suspects beyond the two teachers arrested last week.
A prosecution source said the District Attorney’s Office was not aware of a related case involving a female teacher.
“I am 100% sure this (female) teacher had to have known something,†Claypool told The News.
Asked what motivation she might have had for letting a colleague abuse her students, Claypool said that was a question for investigators.
“Maybe it was for control, the thrill of getting away with something. The pretext for all of this was a game,†he said.
He said he’s demanding that Berndt be tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Miramonte, meanwhile, is closed Tuesday and Wednesday after parents staged a protest at the campus Monday morning.
