A Lawndale teacher's aide, who students describe as "a helper" during the lunch hour, has been charged with molesting a 16-year-old mentally challenged student in a stairwell, Centinela Valley Union High School District officials announced Monday.

Juan Carlos Gutierrez, 60, of Redondo Beach, was arrested Friday on suspicion of three misdemeanor counts of molesting a mentally disabled student at Leuzinger High School.

The alleged May 7 incident was recorded by a student's cell phone and a school surveillance camera. NBC4 was told neither recording was available, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's officials, who are investigating the incident.

Gutierrez allegedly took the girl, who according to police has the mental capacity of an elementary school student, to a stairwell and fondled her.

Parents who had arrived on campus Monday were in disbelief.

"I'm shocked. I'm telling you because I would never thought something like that is going on here," said Gisella Alfaro, whose son is a junior at the school.

In a brief news conference Monday morning, district officials said Gutierrez was immediately removed from the campus and that parents were informed of the situation through an auto-alert message.

"This is a very emotional moment for Centinela Valley," said Jose Fernandez, superintendent of Centinela Valley Union High School District. "We have never had an incident of this nature and I want to let you know that the board of education and myself, the entire administrative team, take this very seriously."

Students who talked with NBC4 Monday said they are saddened by the alleged incident, and said they plan to look out for one another.

"Just makes me feel like I'm going to have to watch out a little more," student Breeze Cornelius said. "I'm going to keep an eye out for myself and other kids to make sure nothing like that happens."

Gutierrez was arrested at his Redondo Beach home at 5:30 p.m. May 10. He is being held on $60,000 bail, and is scheduled to appear in a Torrance courtroom Tuesday afternoon for his arraignment.

A former fourth-grade elementary school teacher accused of sexually abusing as many as 12 children and a female relative was ordered Monday to stand trial, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.

Robert Pimentel, 57, faces 14 counts of sexual abuse allegedly against students at George De La Torre Elementary School in Wilmington. Two charges of continued sexual abuse against Pimentel have been dismissed, according the the LA County District Attorney’s office.

He was removed from the school in March 2012 and placed on paid administrative leave, along with the school's principal at the time.

Pimentel worked for the Los Angeles County School District since 1974. He was arrested in January 2013 when his case was reopened.

The Newport Beach resident has been held in lieu of $14 million bail.

An investigation into the allegations began March 15, 2012, when a dozen young girls at George De La Torre Elementary School claimed that Pimentel, a teacher at the school, had touched them inappropriately.

Prosecutors alleged Pimentel abused some victims multiple times over a period from September 2011 to March 2012, according to earlier reports.

Enraged parents claimed on March 21 that the LAUSD purposely failed to investigate reports made to school years before the scandal.

Pimentel is scheduled to be arraigned May 28.

Lawyers for student victims of a teacher accused of sex abuse on Thursday said a parent had reported her child's mistreatment at a Wilmington elementary school years before it was uncovered by police.

They accused the Los Angeles Unified School District of purposefully failing to investigate the abuse by not following up on the complaint, which the attorney said was made by a parent in 2009 about teacher Robert Pimentel's treatment of her daughter.

Pimentel, who had worked for LAUSD since 1974, was arrested in January, about nine months after he was removed from his fourth-grade classroom at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary School during an investigation over accusations of sexual abuse against him.

Pimentel, pictured below, faces multiple charges of abusing a dozen girls, plus charges related to an older alleged abuse crimes. 

On Thursday, a group of attorneys told news media they believed LAUSD had "covered up" Pimentel's crimes at the school near the Port of Los Angeles.

"As a result of our investigation in the George De La Torre … abuse by Pimentel, we have uncovered evidence that in the year 2009, the parents were complaining about a whole host of problems, including that one mother complained Pimentel touched her daughter inappropriately," attorney Luis Carrillo said.

Carrillo said he and other attorneys for the families believe that report about Pimentel to a district official must have been escalated to higher leadership levels, even to then-Superintendent Ramon Cortines.

"Those reports have never seen the light of day, they're buried and hidden in this building," Carrillo said, speaking in front of LAUSD's headquarters in downtown LA. "They don't want the community to know how miserably they failed to protect children."

The accusation, which echoes similar ones made by Carrillo and other attorneys just weeks ago, comes as the nation's second-largest school district faces continuing revelations of sex abuse at its campuses. Last week, the district announced a multimillion-dollar settlement of claims over abuse at Miramonte Elementary School.

Meanwhile, Carrillo has submitted a public records request to the school district seeking documents he believes will describe the parent's 2009 complaint about Pimentel, and he encourages news media to do ask for such documents as well.

David Holmquist, LAUSD's general counsel, confirmed at a news conference that a parent at the school had met with district officials in 2009, but could not say what was discussed.

Holmquist said all records related to Pimentel had been turned over to Los Angeles Police Department investigators.

He said the district would review the attorneys' records request.

Holmquist also said the district responds differently now than it did under 2009 policies, noting that the current superintendent, John Deasy, immediately removed Pimentel from the classroom and also fired George De La Torre Elementary Principal Irene Hinojosa for failing to report the abuse.

"When we learned of the allegations involving Mr. Pimentel, Superintendent Deasy acted swiftly and asked the board to dismiss the gentleman," Holmquist said.

A new investigative unit responds to all abuse claims now, Holmquist said.

The attorneys at the news conference Thursday referred repeatedly to a state audit issued in November that found fault with district handling of abuse claims, saying they were not properly reported to authorities.

"The state audit confirms everything we're saying," Carrillo said.

He called for Deasy to be removed.

Lawyers for at least four students in the Los Angeles Unified School District accused the district on Friday of trying to cover up allegations of teacher abuse by tossing out charges, but the district said it’s all a misunderstanding.

The abuse allegations were leveled against former teacher Robert Pimentel, who used to work at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary School in Wilmington.

"What we have here is systematic attempts to cover up further sexual abuse of students within the LAUSD," said attorney Michael Carrillo.

Carillo and other students’ lawyers received letters from the school district stating that, by law, the claims of abuse were being rejected because they were not submitted in time. The attorneys said that move is an attempt to protect the school’s staff, and not children, among them at least 20 who may have been victimized by Pimentel.

But the school district chalked it up to what officials called a clerical error. In a statement released Friday, the district said, in part, that the rejection letters were inadvertently sent out and that the district is continuing to review the four claims submitted in this case "the attention they deserve."

Pimentel, 57, of Newport Beach, left his position with the school during the investigation, which began March 15, 2012.

The investigation began when several girls told their parents that they had been inappropriately touched by a fourth-grade teacher during school.

Related stories:

• Ex-Teacher Faces New Charge in Sex Crimes Case
• OC DA Reopens Abuse Investigation of Teacher
• Wilmington School Teacher Accused of Inappropriately Touching Student 

After a year in custody on accusations he sexually abusing his students, former LAUSD teacher Mark Berndt has been put on notice he may face more charges.

Berndt is already facing 23 counts of lewd conduct related to the student abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary School.

Authorities arrested Berndt in February 2012 after the discovery of incriminating photographs that, according to investigators, showed Berndt feeding students cookies topped with his bodily fluids.

After his arrest, sheriff's investigators disclosed they had come across more photos of additional children, which first raised the possibility of additional counts.

At a court hearing in Downtown LA on Wednesday, prosecutors said they expected to make a decision by Berndt's next court appearance in April. However, they declined to comment on how many additional counts they are considering or why the uncertainty has lasted so long.

"The prosecution and law enforcement have had a significant chunk of time to get their ducks in a row," defense attorney Manny Medrano said. "I'd be surprised if there's additional charges, but if there are we'll be ready to aggressively defend against them."

Berndt remains in custody on $26 million bail.

At the judge's request, prosecutors will consider the possibility of offering Berndt a plea agreement, even as they consider filing more charges against him.

A former California state senator has called for an independent investigation into what she says is "alleged rampant sex abuse" of Latino students in the LAUSD.

Former California Democratic State Senator Martha Escutia, an attorney and child sex abuse survivors advocate, has called for the investigation in the wake of what she said was a "pattern of alleged sexual abuse" perpetrated against students by teachers and other employees at LAUSD schools.

“There’s a pattern of all these sexual abuse scandals popping up everywhere in poor, minority neighborhoods," she said at a press conference outside the Wilmington school where a teacher was arrested last week. "The question I’m wondering is what’s next?"

Escutia has not yet concluded that the pattern she sees is the result of a specific District "practice," she said.  "I don't know if there's lack of administrative oversight.

“I just want an independent investigation from someone, an independent investigation as to what is happening at LAUSD, who knows what, what do they know, when did they know it, who are the victims and what has been done to keep the kids safe.”

Escutia also urged the District to release all documents related to the handling of abuse reports. 

LAUSD attorney David Holmquist said the district has always worked to provide a safe environment for students, and it has conducted extensive reviews of its policies over the past year.

The district updated its system of notifying state teacher-credentialing authorities when allegations arise and placed more specialists in the field to advise schools on misconduct issues.

It changed its policy for notifying parents about abuse allegations and was working with Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Van Nuys, on legislation to allow faster dismissal of teachers accused of abuse.

"Anytime an incident like this occurs, it impacts our entire community,'' Holmquist said. "Every child we serve is important, and we would never willfully place students in harm's way. We are consistently working to strengthen student safety, including implementing numerous policy changes and supporting meaningful statewide legislative reforms like Senator Padilla's teacher dismissal bill.

"We would encourage Senator Escutia and Mr. (John) Manly to work with us to support statewide legislative reforms that will provide a safer learning environment for our students,'' he said.

The news comes as a Wilmington teacher was arrested last week in connection with alleged abuse of children at a school.

Two teachers were arrested in connection with alleged abuses against students at Miramonte Elementary School in Florence and a teacher was arrested at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima last year.

Escutia and John Manly represent more than 30 children allegedly abused by teachers at Miramonte.

 Escutia said she's concerned that reports of abuse by Latino children and parents are often ignored, and that the undocumented parents of victims are afraid to report abuse out of fear they will be deported. 

Students of Hispanic heritage account  for 73.4 per cent of LAUSD enrollment, according to the District's figures.   

She noted that recent documents disclosed by the Los Angeles Archdiocese of the Catholic Church also evidenced a disproportionate number of sexual crimes committed against Latino children by known predator priests who were moved by the Church into poor Latino communities.

She said that an investigation should focus on whether known abusers were intentionally assigned or moved by LAUSD officials to the poorest and mostly Latino schools.

City News Service contributed to this report.

A retired teacher pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of sexually abusing children while a teacher at George De La Torre, Jr., Elementary School in Wilmington.

Robert Pimentel, 57, of Newport Beach, pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of child sexual abuse of 12 victims, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

The investigation began when several girls told their parents that they had been inappropriately touched by a fourth-grade teacher during school at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary School.

Parents reacted on Thursday to the news of the arrest.

“We bring our kids to school thinking that it’s the safest place for them to be,” said parent Daisy Torres, after a closed-door meeting with 106 parents and LAUSD officials. “And for us to find out that it’s happening in school and it’s one of the teachers in the class, it worries me because here we’re working and thinking they’re safe and they’re actually not.”

Pimentel left his position with the school during the investigation, which began March 15, 2012.

Prosecutors allege Pimentel abused 12 children under 14-years-old from September 2011 to March 2012. Some of the victims were abused multiple times, prosecutors said.

"There was no touching of any private parts by anybody," said Pimentel's attorney, Richard Knickerbocker.

Students' parents were told about the allegations last March within 72 hours of Pimental's removal from campus, in accordance with LAUSD policy, school officials said.

Coincidentally, that's also when the school's principal, Irene Hinojosa, retired. LAPD officials told NBC4 late Thursday that Hinojosa could face charges in connection with the investigation.

Magdalena Gonzalez, a school volunteer, says Hinojosa should be held accountable, in addition to the school district. Gonzalez says a group of concerned parents had their suspicions about Pimentel and reported him to Hinojosa, but Gonzalez claims parents were ignored.

"That's the pattern of the LA Unified School District," said Luis Carrillo, who represented victims in the Miramonte sex scandal. "Parents complain, parents are ignored."

Pimentel had worked for the LAUSD since 1974. He was assigned to the school in Wilmington in 2007.

Anyone with information about the case was asked to contact police at 213-486-0570.

A former Wilmington elementary school teacher was arrested Wednesday in a school sexual abuse case allegedly involving at least 20 children and one adult, according to police.

Robert Pimental, 57, was arrested Wednesday and is being held on $12 million bail.

The Newport Beach man faces eight counts of continuous sexual abuse and seven counts of lewd acts upon a child, according to a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department.

"The investigation began when several girls told their parents that they had been inappropriately touched by a fourth-grade teacher during school at George De La Torre Jr. Elementary," the statement read.

Pimental left his position with the school during the investigation, which began March 15, 2012.

"When the District first learned of the allegations, the teacher was immediately removed from
campus ... Dismissal proceedings were initiated," LAUSD spokesman Daryl Strickland said in a statment. "Before the Board of Education could act on dismissal, he chose to retire."

Students' parents were told about the allegations last March within 72 hours of Pimental's removal from campus, in accordance with LAUSD policy, Strickland said.

United Teachers Los Angeles, a union that represents LA educators, said in a statment that it is "not familiar" with the allegations against Pimental, adding that after his resignation, Pimental is no longer a member of the union.

"The allegations described are horrific," the statement read. "As teachers we have a duty to uphold the trust our students and their parents place in us."

Pimental had worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District since 1974.

George De La Torre Jr. Elementary is located at 500 North Island Ave. in Wilmington, a largely Latino Los Angeles Harbor Area neighborhood with about 50,000 residents. The school, opened to fanfare in 2006, has about 800 students.

Anyone with information about the case was asked to contact police at 213-486-0570.

NOTE: LAPD initially said an adult is among the 20 alleged victims. The department later said all the alleged victims are children before then updating the figure to 20 children and one adult.

A 27-year-old elementary school teacher accused of sexually assaulting two students last year in a classroom was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of lewd acts with a child.

The fifth-grade teacher -- Jeffrey Simonek -- has been on administrative leave during the investigation, which began Aug. 2 after investigators received a report through the Department of Children and Family Services. He was booked Wednesday on suspicion of lewd acts with a child under 14 years of age and jailed on $300,000 bail.

The criminal acts allegedly occurred in a classroom last year at Center Street School in El Segundo.

Simonek also worked as a camp counselor for boys at a Lake Tahoe area summer camp from 2005 to 2011, according to El Segundo police. He allegedly committed "similar criminal acts with young boys" at the camp, police said.

Refresh this page for updates.

For Miramonte Elementary School, next Tuesday will mark more than the start of a new school year. It will be, in-effect, the reboot of a school shaken by charges last February that two teachers were accused of sexually abusing students.

"My concern is for student safety and academics," said Martha Contreras, Miramonte Elementary School principal.

Contreras came to the South LA school as an assistant principal last spring, when the school and community were reeling from the abuse scandal. Now, she’s taken on pressing challenges as the school’s new principal.

"I think there's a layer of things that needs to be done here at Miramonte. Number one is re-establishing the trust," she said.

Following the arrest of two Miramonte teachers accused of sexually abusing students, the school’s entire staff was replaced by substitutes last February.

Timeline: Miramonte School Scandal

Those former teachers – Mark Berndt and Martin Springer – are both scheduled to be in court next week as their former school is rebooting.

Parents and staff rallied to bring them back and dozens of the relocated teachers are returning in the fall, but not without anxiety.

"These teachers continue to suffer the aftershocks of everything that happened at Miramonte," said Ingrid Villeda, with the United Teachers of Los Angeles union.

Villeda told NBC4 the returning teachers don’t want to speak out publicly ahead of the new school year, as they did in May, but they do hope the administration will schedule a meeting with parents to deal with lingering concerns.

"They want to make sure the parents and kids feel comfortable," Villeda said.

Contreras said a community meeting is in the works.

Enrollment will be lower when Miramonte starts on Aug. 14, partly due to plans set before the abuse scandal broke.

Several hundred students will transfer to a new school nearby that was already in the works to ease overcrowding. A dozen teachers will relocate with them, having helped draft the education plan for the new site while they were on relocation.

Principals throughout LA say they are aware of the expectation of vigilance on their part.

"The principal is the first line of defense," Contreras said.

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Legislation that would have expedited the disciplinary review process for teachers accused of sexual abuse failed to clear the Assembly Education Committee Wednesday.

Senate Bill 1530, sponsored by Sen. Alex Padilla,  would have made streamlined the process for firing teachers accused of crimes involving sexual abuse, violence and drug offenses.

LAUSD Superintedent John Deasy blamed powerful lobbying forces for the bill's rejection.

"When we want students' rights protected, maybe we need a union," said Deasy

The bill was written out of response to the Miramonte Elementary scandal in which two teachers were charged with sexually abusing students.

Ongoing Coverage: Miramonte School Investigation

It would have allowed evidence more than four years old to be considered in dismissal hearings, which supporters contend may have brought the Miramonte case to light sooner.

The bill also would have sped up the firing process for teachers accused of sex crimes, drug offenses and child abuse by having those cases heard by an administrative law judge. The final decision would have been determined by the school district.

But the legislation was strongly opposed by teachers unions, which insisted that steps were already in place which should have prevented the Miramonte situation and others like it.

"I think it's shameful," said Deasy. "I think the vote and what eventually has happened has been shameful for students and for employees in the State of California.

"We basically have said that students who are brutally molested by employees, we cannot actually expedite their firing. I am disheartened, but undeterred. But I am incredibly disheartened."

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A 56-year-old soccer coach was in custody Wednesday for alleged inappropriate sexual conduct in the training room at Ontario Christian High School, police said.

Police said Earl Wayne Gann, who began coaching the girls' junior varsity soccer team last year after coaching soccer for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), “touched and kissed” a 14-year-old girl when they were alone in the training room.

Ongoing Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

School Superintendent Ryan Groen said Gann has been suspended and all of the schools' parents have been informed.

Ontario Police Sgt. David McBride said the girl told school administrators about the incident. They in turn notified San Bernardino County Child Protective Services, who informed Ontario police.

“This was definitely an unwanted advance,” McBride said. “It’s got to be devastating.”

Gann was arrested Tuesday without incident during a traffic stop near his home in Corona, police said.

He was charged with two felony counts of lewd acts with a child, and bail was set at $750,000, McBride said.

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A teacher's aide at Gratts Elementary School near downtown Los Angeles has been arrested after allegations of inappropriate behavior involving a child, according to Los Angeles Unified School District officials.

Ongoing Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

The alleged crimes did not take place at the school, and it's not clear if the victim was a student, an LAUSD spokesperson said.

The aide was identified by school officials as 25-year-old Jorge Luis Dominguez, a temporary teacher's aide.

"I'm digusted because he's around our kids," said one mother who was upset with the district's notification process.

Jail records showed Dominguez was arrested at 4:42 a.m. His bail amount was set at $100,000. No court date has been scheduled.

"The allegations against Jorge Dominguez... regarding lewd acts with a child and criminal acts against children are horrifying and sickening," Superintendent John Deasy said in a statement.

The district learned of the accusations and arrest Thursday morning, according to the statement. 

Dominguez worked at the school, located west of downtown LA, since 2004, both as a teacher's aide and coach. He was to be terminated Thursday, according to the district.

Notifications from the school district were being sent to parents and guardians of students at Gratts Elementary, and crisis counseling is set to be offered to any victims.

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Facebook and text messages are among the media a La Mirada substitute teacher is suspected of using to engage in inappropriate contact with a middle school student, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials said.

Ongoing Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

Taylor Welch, 22, was arrested Tuesday morning at his La Mirada home on suspicion of felony lewd acts upon a child and distributing obscene material to a minor, authorities said.

Welch served as a substitute teacher at Hutchinson Middle School in La Mirada, where he met the 13-year-old girl in his classroom.

Detectives said they found each other on Facebook and a friendship developed.

That friendship allegedly led to the “unlawful exchange of sexually graphic photographs, live video feed and sexting messages between the suspect and the child,” detectives said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.

Inappropriate personal contact also occurred in the classroom after class, according to the statement, which was signed with a link to a parents’ guide to social networking sites.

An investigation began on April 24 after a parent notified school officials they were suspicious about possible inappropriate contact between the teacher and the student.

The 13-year-old girl reportedly showed her friend photographs stored on her cell phone, which prompted the parent to inform school leaders, sheriff’s said.

Welch was a substitute teacher at Hutchinson Middle School since September 2011.

Detectives said he has not substitute taught at any other school and has been “relieved of his duties” at Hutchinson.

He is being held on $140,000 bail.

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A teacher was removed from John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills Tuesday amid allegations of misconduct, according to a letter sent home Friday.

Complete Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

That letter claims that due to “legal constraints regarding confidential personnel matters, the details of this incident cannot be disclosed.”

LAUSD officials said the teacher in question is currently working at a non-teaching facility.

A similar note when home with students at Rancho Dominguez Preparatory High School exactly one week ago after a substitute teacher there was removed amid allegations he was secretly videotaping students.

That teacher had been working at the school two days before a student noticed the camera and told officials.

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A substitute teacher was working at Rancho Dominguez Preparatory School for two days before being removed from campus amid allegations of misconduct, according to a letter sent home to parents Friday.

A student reportedly found a camera that had fallen out from under the substitute teacher's desk. When asked about the camera, the teacher reportedly told the student it was none of his business, the student said to school officials.

Related: Slurs, Profanity Preceded Long Beach Student Brawl

The letters lacked specifics, and did not tell parents the grade level or the accusations against the teacher, who reportedly worked with sixth-grade students.

"I can just imagine what he was doing with the tape," said Rosalin Victor, whose daughter attends Rancho Dominguez Prep. "It's sad."

The employee was put on administrative leave last week when school officials learned of the allegations. That administrative leave has since become termination, since the substitute teacher is an at-will employee and can be let go without cause.

Complete Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

But the letter released Friday morning notes that he will not return to campus "until the investigation is complete and the allegations are determined to be unfounded," Principal Keri Lew wrote in the letter, which were available in English and Spanish.

"Where there is a presumption of innocence in matters of this nature, the District takes each and every reported act of misconduct seriously,” Lew wrote. “We are committed to aggressively pursuing each case to determine the truth and, if necessary, initiate the appropriate disciplinary or administrative measures."

The details of the incident are "confidential and cannot be disclosed," per the Long Beach Police Department, which is investigating the case, Lew wrote.

School officials learned about the incident last week and began calling parents Thursday night.

"We're thankful that students made this known," said Darel Strickland, LAUSD spokesman. "I think students should be given a lot of credit."

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A 26-year-old afterschool program coordinator at a Lawndale elementary school was arrested in connection with having sexual relations with a 16-year-old boy.

The case came to light on April 5 when the boy and his mother reported to police that he had been involved for eight months in consensual sexual relations with Mariya Markel Aldridge who was an afterschool program coordinator at Kit Carson Elementary School, police said.

Complete Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

Aldridge, 26, of Hawthorne, resigned from her post a day after her arrest on charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. She was released from custody after posting bail.

Police told the Torrance Daily Breeze that the two had sex at Aldridge's Hawthorne home and at her workplace.

The boy reported he has known Aldridge for several years and that they began a relationship at toward the end of 2011.

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A former social studies teacher accused of exchanging sexually explicit images with a 13 year old in New Jersey pleaded not guilty Monday, according to FBI officials.

Eugene Ballntyne, 29, of Running Springs, was charged with five counts, including sexual exploitation of a minor and receipt and possession of a child pornography, on March 23.

Ballantyne is accused sending nude photos of himself to a victim, whom he met in a chat room under the false name John Baldwin, wrote Laura Eimiller with Los Angeles FBI in a news release Monday.

Four more minor-aged victims have been identified in the investigation, which started last month when one victim’s parent contacted detectives in the South Brunswick, New Jersey, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court on March 9.

Ballantyne expressed his love for the victim and in at least one message said "how lucky" he was that the victim was "in his life," Eimiller wrote in a statement released in March.

Ballantyne, who taught at Arrowview Middle School in San Bernardino, reportedly admitted to agents during a federal search warrant that he had been communicating with the minor in New Jersey and two more minors he met online, Eimiller wrote.

He admitted to police that he had sex with one of those additional victims after traveling 180 miles to where she was, Eimiller wrote.

If convicted of all charges, Ballantyne faces as a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison. His trial is scheduled for May 1.

Anyone with information about this case, or the unreported victimization of minors, is urged to contact the FBI at 888 226-8443.

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A male teacher at a Winnetka middle school has been removed from the classroom after accusations he possibly abused female students.

School district officials on Friday would not release his name, a grade level, nor allegation, saying the information is confidential. He is being housed in a non-teaching office, said Ellen Morgan, a spokeswoman at the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Parents received letters and a phone message on Thursday, saying officials are investigating allegations of misconduct by a school employee, Morgan said.

"The employee has been removed from the campus and will not return until the investigation is complete and the allegations are determined to be unfounded," the phone message said. "The details of this incident are confidential and cannot be disclosed."

Ongoing Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

The news comes on the heels of a 72-hour notification policy requiring school officials to disclose basic information when a teacher is removed from the classroom for allegations of sexual misconduct. The only exception would occur if the district was specifically advised by law enforcement not to release the information within that time frame, LAUSD said.

"The intent with our policy has always been to enable law enforcement to conduct investigations in an environment free from bias, and to let parents and guardians know within a reasonable amount of time if a teacher has been accused of a serious offense," said LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. "We believe that the new rule strikes the proper balance between the two."

Attorney Brian Claypool, who is representing several families in litigation involving a former teacher at Miramonte Elementary School over alleged abuse, said a colleague of the teacher at Sutter sent a letter to school administrators raising concerns about possible inappropriate behavior.

In the letter, the teacher claimed that several female students complained to him about the actions of the teacher -- including touching and flirting.

“He overheard these kids talking in his classroom about this other teacher, so he intervened and said, ‘Hey, what are you all talking about?’” Claypool said during a Thursday press conference. “And then these kids opened up to him and said, ‘Hey we feel very uncomfortable around this teacher. We're afraid, we don't feel comfortable.’”

Claypool told reporters that school and district administrators failed to act on the allegations in the letter for a week.

“We've learned from Miramonte that 20 years ago nothing was done to take those complaints serious,” Claypool said. “And had they been taken serious, we could have avoided the entire Miramonte tragedy.”

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Parents and guardians of LAUSD students will now be informed within 72 hours of sexual misconduct allegations against school employees, according to a news release from the school district.

Ongoing Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

The new policy, set to be completed by the start of the 2012-13 school year, mandates parents be told if a "certified employee" at their child’s school has been removed from the classroom amid allegations of sexual misconduct against students.

The alterations come in light of a spate of teacher abuse scandals, during which parents and school employees expressed outrage that some cases took months to come to light.

Parents and staff at Telfair Elementary School were informed in February about the Oct. 2011 arrest of a third grade teacher at that school.

Paul Chapel, of Chatsworth, was accused of sexually abusing four kids under 14-years-old, including one student, over the span of 30 weeks between Sept. 13, 2010, and April 5, 2011.

"People were angry, and rightfully so," Nury Martinez, a board member who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley area that includes Telfair Elementary School, told NBC 4 in February.

Wednesday’s policy change follows a unanimous approval of resolutions authored by Martinez and board member Tamar Galatzan calling for changes to how the district informed parents about alleged teacher abuse.

The district’s previous policy did not specify a deadline for informing parents and guardians about alleged teacher misconduct.

Parents at the Telfair Elementary were only informed that Chapel was removed from the classroom, but not why.

LAUSD officials said they delayed notification, which was largely accomplished by a slew of news reports, because they "could not comprise the police investigation."

Police said they would not ask the school district to withhold notifying parents of the allegations, according to a February statement.

That circumstance, however, is the only caveat in the district’s new mandate, according to the release. Parents would not be notified if law enforcement specifically asked the school to withhold that information.

"The intent with our policy has always been to enable law enforcement to conduct investigations in an environment free from bias, and to let parents and guardians know within a reasonable amount of time if a teacher has been accused of a serious offense," said LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy. "We believe that the new rule strikes the proper balance between the two."

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Prosecutors building a case against Mark Berndt, the former Miramonte Elementary School teacher accused of lewd acts involving at least 20 children, said Wednesday they are still going through "a lot" of photos and working to identify new potential victims.

Full Coverage: Case Timeline | About Miramonte Elementary

"There are a lot of photographs where the children have not been identified and that is still under investigation," said Sandi Gibbons, Los Angeles County District Attorney's office spokeswoman.

During Wednesday's court hearing downtown, Berndt's attorney, Victor Acevedo, asked for copies of the photos, but a judge denied the request.

Acevedo also asked the judge to lower Berndt's bond from $23 million to $1 million. The judge denied the request, saying the defendant is still a danger to the public and victims, who are dealing with emotional trauma.

"I'm really disappointed that unfortunately we didn't get even somewhere near what I would consider to be reasonable under the circumstances," Acevedo said.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for May 1.

Outside of court, Berndt's attorney said his client is being harassed in jail and officials are turning a blind eye to the abuse.

"My understanding is that some of the issues of harassment at the hands of other inmates have been under the watchful eyes of some deputies who haven't done anything," Acevedo said.

Berndt, 61, was arrested Jan. 31 on suspicion of felony molestation with 23 children ages 6 to 10 years old. The former teacher allegedly blindfolded students, placed roaches on their faces and dangled spoons filled with semen near their mouths, according to prosecutors.

He has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Ongoing Coverage: Miramonte School Investigation | School Abuse Scandal

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Parents of students at George de La Torre Junior Elementary School in Wilmington attended one of three meetings Monday to discuss the removal of a teacher accused of inappropriately touching a student.

The school's female principal has also been removed, and replaced by a bilingual man who has spent more than 40 years in education, according to the LAUSD.

Parents told NBC4 after the Monday morning meeting -- two other meetings were conducted last week -- at the school that the teacher's identity was not released.

The teacher has not been arrested or fired. Both the principal and teacher are on paid administrative leave.

"They basically said they're going to do everything they can to get to the bottom of it," said parent Mike Mitchell.

Five female students and their parents filed a police report Thursday claiming there was inappropriate touching over their clothing by a male teacher, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Letters regarding the teacher's removal were sent home to parents Friday. 

The school's prinicpal, who was subsequently removed for reasons unknown, signed that letter.

The accusations are the latest in a string of allegations involving LAUSD employees, including two former Miramonte Elementary School teachers accused of molesting students.

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The Republican caucus in Sacramento won a race to legislative bipartisanship Tuesday, in embracing the request from the LA Unified School District for changes in state law dealing with problem teachers.

"It's not a partisan issue," said Sen. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo.

And to make the point, the Republican caucus cited a letter from Democratic L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigos to Gov. Jerry Brown calling for action.  "Republicans stand with Mayor Villaraigosa," read the till now unlikely headline on the announcement.

A Democrat in the legislature, State Senator Alex Padilla of the San Fernando Valley, has also expressed interest in carrying a bill for LAUSD. 

The impetus for the changes stems from the Miramonte Elementary School abuse scandal and the series of teacher misconduct allegationse that has followed it, triggering public outrage. 

Mark Berndt was accused of mistreating children at Miramonte Elementary with cockroaches and cookies tainted with bodily fluid. What further troubled  many is that while trying to fire Berndt, the school district allowed him to resign, and agreed to pay him a $40,000 settlement, in addition to his pension.

In the wake of this, LAUSD leadership saw both the need to respond, and  the opportunity to press for long-sought changes that date back years before the Miramonte uproar, and in some cases deal only tangentialy with the issue of removing teachers who have committed crimes.

The District's legal office presented a list of"Top Ten Recommended Legislative Changes."  They include:  allowing districts to go back more than four years when citing misconduct; permitting the dismissal process to proceed during summer vacation; making state appeal hearings advisory, rather than binding; and stripping pensions from teachers who are convicted of school-related felonies.

Teachers unions, including United Teachers Los Angeles, have suggested the real problem is not the law, but a lack of district vigilance.

"What we're doing is, we seem to be calling for changes that will cause things to be the way they already are," said Warren Fletcher, UTLA president. "The district has the ability to remove a teacher form a school at any time."

Agreeing with that--to a point--are some of the Republican lawmakers calling for change.

"I think sometimes people complain about the processes as an excuse for lethargy and for doing nothing," said Assemblyman Chris Norby, R-Fullerton.

The Republican caucus is planning to introduce its bill Thursday.  State Senator Padilla has not indicated when the Democratic version will be ready, nor how it will differ.  Democrats traditionally have had closer relationships with California's teachers unions than Republicans.

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District officials are responding to criticism about how they handled allegations of inappropriate behavior involving a teacher at Davis Middle School and a female student.

There was "no cover-up, [we were] completely transparent," said Karen Frison, interim superintendent of Compton Unified School District. "We want to keep kids safe."

Frison said she was notified about the issue late Friday, but at that point she no longer controlled the investigation, which had been handed over to the sheriff's department.

The male physical education teacher at the center of the allegation is on paid administration leave during the investigation.

Students will continue to be interviewed "until we feel we have enough of a sampling to get a good idea of what happened," said Sgt. Dan Scott, from the Special Victims Bureau.

If needed, they may expand their investigation to another school year, Scott said.

The family that initiated the investigation claimed the school's principal told them to "stop lying." Frison said she knows nothing about that.

 "I have not been privy to that conversation but as I talk with her I will ask her about it," Frison said.

Children at Davis Middle School are getting counseling and that the principal has been actively involved, Frison said.

"She's aware of the students who have in fact been talked with or have been questioned so she's supporting them," Frison said.

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A former social studies teacher at Arrowview Middle School in San Bernardino was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of exchanging sexually explicit photos with a 13-year-old girl in New Jersey, according to the FBI.

Complete Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

Eugene Ballantyne, 29, of Running Springs, was arrested without incident and charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint filed in Riverside.

Ballantyne allegedly met the South Brunswick, N.J., teen in an online chat room in January 2012. The two would correspond via online messaging and phone calls, according to the FBI.

"Ballantyne, who allegedly used a false name of John Baldwin while communicating with the victim, sent nude photographs of himself to the victim and received partially nude, sexually suggestive photographs of the victim," wrote Laura Eimiller of the FBI's LA Field Office in a statement released Tuesday.

Ballantyne expressed his love for the victim and in at least one message said "how lucky" he was that the victim was "in his life," wrote Eimiller.

While executing a federal search warrant at his home on March 1, Ballantyne allegedly admitted to communicating with the teen. Also, he allegedly admitted to receiving sexually explicit images from another girl he met online two years earlier, according to the FBI.

"The complaint further alleges that Ballantyne admitted to traveling 180 miles to have sex with a third minor victim, identified in the complaint as 'CV3,' whom he met in an online chat room," wrote Eimiller.

Ballantyne, who worked for the school district for 17 months, was put on paid administrative leave on March 1, and resigned on March 2, according to the district.

The San Bernardino Unified School District is cooperating with the ongoing investigation, according to the FBI.

Ballantyne faces up to 20 years in prison.

Anyone with information about this case can contact the FBI at 888 226-8443.

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A 29-year-old substitute teacher in La Mirada was arrested Monday on suspicion of sexually molesting a student at Los Coyotes Middle School, according to Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department officials.

The mother of a female student at Los Coyotes Middle School said her daughter told her a male substitute teacher, identified by authorities as Ted Nishihara, touched her in a sexual manner during class, police said.

The alleged molestation occurred Thursday, according to district officials.A female student made a report to a guidance counselor, who contacted school administrators, according to Norwalk-La Mirada Superintendent Ruth Perez.

Other students told school officials they were uncomfortable with the way Nishihara looked at them, Perez said.

The girl's mother reported the allegations to the sheriff's department Friday, according to authorities.

Detectives interviewed students and staff at the school Monday before speaking with the suspect, police said. After an interview with Nishihara, detectives arrested him at his home for lewd acts upon a child.

"He was teaching in several different school districts as a substitute teacher, so we are contacting all of those school districts to see if there are any complaints against him," said Sgt. Dan Scott, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Special Victim's Bureau.

He is being held on $100,000 bail. A court appearance was scheduled for Wednesday, according to jail records.

Nishihara has been working for the Norwalk-La Mirada School District for about five years.

The arrest is the latest in a series of investigations involving sexual misconduct in Los Angeles-area schools.

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A physical education teacher at Davis Middle School was placed under investigation last week for suspected sexual misconduct with a student, but the student’s father said he tried to warn the school several months ago.

The male teacher has been placed on administrative leave among allegations that he made a female student feel uncomfortable using hugs, nice words and allegedly watching her undress, according to the student’s father, whom we have named "Andres" to protect his privacy.

Andres said that when he approached school officials, the principal of Compton’s Davis Middle School advised him and his daughter to "stop lying."

Feeling abandoned, Andres said he talked to school and city police, both of whom referred him back to school staff.

Last week, his daughter came home crying, saying the teacher touched her inappropriately while giving her a hug, he said. Andres reported the incident and the teacher was put on leave the next day.

Some parents called for the teacher’s arrest, while others reprimanded school officials who they said were slow to act, regardless of whether they thought the allegations were true.

Parents were given a letter Monday sent home with students and signed by the school’s principal and superintendent.

The principal declined to comment on the case, while the superintendent said she would comment at a later time.

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Although it's become conventional wisdom that the process for firing substandard teachers is too cumbersome, an NBC4 investigation found that the Los Angeles Unified School District has had little difficulty firing more than 1,000 teachers in recent years.

Within the past year, LAUSD has terminated 853 teachers, and only a fraction are pursuing appeals. Records show that since 2009, no fired teacher who went through the entire appeals process to a ruling has been reinstated.

On Tuesday, the School Board is scheduled to consider a resolution calling for a change in state law to expedite firing teachers for cause, and give districts the final word.  Under the proposal by Board Member Tamar Galatzan, appeal decisions would only be advisory, and could not compel a district to rehire a teacher.

In recent years, even without any change to state law, the district has been more aggressive in firing educators, according to  LAUSD's Human Resources Chief Vivan Ekchian.

"We have taken many more cases to the Board of Education to initiate dismissal based on performance," Ekchian said. "And that has been a dramatic change."

Those terminated are entitled to have their case heard at an administrative hearing, but the reality is, the vast majority do not choose to do so.

Since 2010, 79 terminated teachers have requested hearings: 21 are still pending and 56 were resolved prior to a hearing, according to Alicia Boomer, staff counsel of California's Office of Administrative Hearings.

Only two teachers stayed with their appeals to the point of administrative hearing rulings. Both lost.

"Most of those settlements that are entered into result in the resignation of the individual," said Alfred Molina, Chief Labor & Employment Counsel for LAUSD.

Miramonte Abuse Scandal | School Abuse Scandal

Regardless, School Board member Nury Martinez and Board President Monica Garcia joined Galatzan in arguing that the termination process needs to be "streamlined" to make it faster and less costly to the district.

Board members described the recent sex abuse scandal at Los Angeles schools as a “wake up call” to state legislators.

Galatzan argues that the appeals process can take between two and seven years. She said the longest and most-expensive firing in district history cost more than $1.6 million to get the teacher dismissed and to defend the lawsuit.

Others are swiftly fired, she said, only to be ordered reinstated on appeal--however, records obtained by NBC4 show that has not happened within the last three years.

"Many cases we rehire an individual who we don't feel comfortable returning to the classroom just have to house this person," Galatzan said. "The cost is a deterrent to doing what's right for the schools and for the children."

United Teachers Los Angeles President Warren Fletcher said the union supports the measures to increase student safety, but said they do not absolve the district of blame for the recent spate of sex abuse cases.

"While the school board considers changes to policy, it is important to remember that we are in the current situation because LAUSD has not met basic standards of vigilance on a daily basis," Fletcher said in a statement.

"LAUSD’s failure of supervision led to a situation at Miramonte Elementary where a single principal supervised staff and more than 1,400 students, with no assistant principal," Fletcher said.

Legislators including State Senator Alex Padilla (D-San Ferndando Valley) and Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff (Diamond Bar) have expressed interest in carrying legislation to reform the teacher dismissal process.

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A male physical education teacher at Davis Middle School in Compton is under investigation for suspected sexual misconduct, sources tell NBC 4.

Davis Middle School has an enrollment of about 1,100, and, according to the source, more than one student may have been victimized by the teacher in question.

Parents arriving to pick up their children after school on Friday were shocked to learn the recent spate of teachers charged with sexual misconduct had found its way to Davis Middle School.

"Well I'm a parent here and now I'm kind of concerned," Joel Martinez said.

The school’s principal had no comment and referred all questions to Karen Frison, the acting superintendent at the Compton Unified School District.

Frison was out for the day, but a spokesperson said officials are aware of the allegations, and confirmed that detectives from the Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau are investigating.

The teacher in question has reportedly been placed on paid administrative leave.

At least one Compton Unified board member is troubled by the cloud of suspicion now hanging over Davis Middle School.

"I believe it's important for us to remain very, very calm and very focused," Micah Ali said. "Understand that the objective is student safety."

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A kindergarten teacher has been removed from Lassen Elementary School after allegations of inappropriate contact with a student, LAUSD officials confirmed Tuesday morning.

Related: LAUSD "Rubber Room"

The male teacher was moved to a non-teaching facility during the investigation, LAUSD officials said. It was not immediately clear how long the teacher has been with the district.

Parents were notified of the allegations, the latest in a series involving LAUSD staff members, in a letter dated March 1.

"This letter is to inform you that an allegation has been made of inappropriate behavior involving a staff member," Principal Dana Carter said in the letter. "Upon receiving the information, the proper authorities were notified. As part of the investigation, the employee has been temporarily removed from the school."

The teacher has not been arrested. An LAPD detective was at the school early Tuesday, but did not provide details regarding the case.

Lassen Elementary School is located in North Hills.

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Saying the LA Unified School District "missed major warning bells," a lawyer representing students allegedly abused by a Miramonte Elementary School teacher announced on Friday the filing of damage claims against the nation's second largest school district.

Attorney Luis Carrillo made the announcement on behalf of 13 parents and 20 children, six of them among the 23 victims named as victims alleged in the criminal complaint.

Full Coverage: Miramonte Sex Abuse Scandal

"The school did not protect the children," Carrillo said during a press conference in front of LAUSD headquarters in downtown L.A. "There was major, major warning signs - major alarm bells ringing off throughout the years."

Carrillo contends the LA School District was negligent in not taking action sooner against Berndt, the former Miramonte teacher charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct dating to 2005.

It was six years later that he was removed from the classroom. Carrillo cited media revelations that parents had raised questions about Berndt's conduct as far back as 1991.

Carrillo said the case is all about "the negligence of the school district that fell asleep and did not protect our kids."

Carrillo would not say if any of the families he represents had complained about Berndt prior to
the announcement of his arrest at the end of January.

Carrillo hopes the claim - a precursor to a lawsuit - will force the district to improve training for the district's teachers, faculty and staff when abuse against students is alleged.

LAUSD officials declined to comment, citing district policy against making statements on pending lawsuits.

Carrillo joins at least two other lawyers representing Miramonte families alleging abuse.

Attorney Brian Claypool alleged “a massive cover-up” by the school district that allowed abusive behavior for two decades.

Claypool's claim seeks damages for emotional distress and calls on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to broaden its investigation into the the school going back 20 years, after a student reportedly made the first complaint about Berndt’s alleged inappropriate behavior.

In his claim, attorney Raymond Boucher alleged the district “did not take adequate steps to prevent the abuse from occurring over and over again.”

 Full Coverage: School Abuse

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A female teacher’s aide pleaded no contest to sexually molesting a 13-year-old male student whom she was tutoring, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Holly Marie Polson, 35, pleaded no contest to four counts of lewd act on a child under 14, said Deputy District Attorney Valerie Little.

Full Coverage: School Abuse Scandal

The married Palmdale resident entered her plea before Antelope Valley Superior Court Judge Hayden Zacky.

Polson has remained in custody since her June 14, 2011 arrest.

She faces up to 14 years in state prison when she returns to court on March 29 for sentencing.

Polson was an aide at Shadow Hills Intermediate School.

She admitted to having an ongoing sexual relationship with the student between May 29 and June 10, 2011, while they were in a classroom and in her car, authorities said.

The acts were discovered when a relative of the victim discovered inappropriate text messages from the suspect on the victim’s cell phone, officials said.

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A Hemet High School teacher accused of having sex with a student on the school campus was arrested Thursday, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

The teacher, identified as 31-year-old Janel Ramirez, is accused of having sex with the student on campus in December. Ramirez was arrested after Hemet High School officials contacted the sheriff's department about the allegations.

The boy's age was not released.

Ramirez was booked Thursday at the Southwest Detention Center on suspicion of unlawful sex with a minor. A court date was set for April 26, according to jail records.

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A former substitute teacher accused in a child molestation case had been located in Mexico but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office chose not to try to extradite him because he was not facing a molestation charge at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times.

George Hernandez was arrested for indecent exposure in September 2010 near Gage Middle School, but bailed out of jail, skipped a court hearing and fled to Mexico, officials said.

The LA Times reports that prosecutors chose not to seek his extradition even after they found through a bailbondsman he was in Jalisco, Mexico.

"We have evaluated the case and have determined that we will not seek the defendant's international extradition from Mexico on this case at this time," Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Huntsman wrote, according to the LA Times. "The case will remain open and the defendant is still subject to prosecution in this case."

Sanford Jossen, the attorney representing the mother of one of George Hernandez’s alleged victims, tells NBC4 he has videotape evidence of a molestation of his client by the suspect.

He said the DA’s decision seems like a “failure of communication.”

“Apparently they hadn’t identified my client and enhanced the charges at the time he was initially charged,” Jossen said during a segment Sunday on NBC4.

Hernandez was investigated three times for sexual misconduct with students before quitting his substitute teaching job in the LAUSD in June 2007 and moving to the Inglewood Unified School District, according to The Times.

Hernandez, 45, was never arrested or charged in connection with the LAUSD cases, according to the Times report. He taught as a substitute in that district for about three years before police discovered a videotape that shows him allegedly molesting a young female student, according to Huntington Park police.

Jossen, a child abuse attorney, said it’s difficult to pursue these prosecutions because they’re “he said, she said” and there isn’t any forensic evidence.

Hernandez was employed by the Inglewood School District as a substitute teacher at the time of the videotape discovery, police said.

Huntington Park police this week released information about the investigation involving Hernandez in September 2010 that began with a report of indecent exposure near Gage Middle School.

On Hernandez’s computer, police found "a large quantity of child pornography" that included video of the suspect allegedly engaging in lewd conduct with a student, according to the sheriff's department.

The case is one in series of lewd conduct investigations in the LAUSD, including the accusations against two former Miramonte Elementary School teachers.

A Chino elementary school teacher was released from jail Tuesday after being arrested the day before on suspicion of lewd acts with a child, police said.

Roger Talley, 53, a fifth grade teacher at Walnut Elementary School, had been the focus of a two-week investigation, officials said.

Talley was arrested and booked Monday at the West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of one count of lewd acts on a child and one count of criminal threats, according to police.

The district attorney declined to prosecute Talley citing reasonable doubt and a lack of corroboration on the part of the alleged victim.

Talley was placed on leave by the Chino Valley Unified School District on Feb. 10, when detectives began to speak with his current and former students, according to a press release from the Chino Police Department.

Talley will remain on leave as the district continues their investigation.

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A high school band director was arrested Monday on suspicion of having unlawful sexual relations with a female student from a neighboring school, according to the Hawthorne Police Department.

Corey Hogan, band director for Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles, allegedly had consensual sex with a 17-year-old student from Lou Dantzler Preparatory Charter High School.

The victim and her mother alerted police Monday to the alleged crime, which happened during the 2011 high school football season, according to police.

"The victim's dance team performed at a Washington High School football game on the day of the alleged incident, and after the game Hogan gave the victim and few other students a ride home," police said in a statement.

"After the other students were dropped off, the victim agreed to go to the Hogan's residence in Hawthorne, where she consented to having sex with him," said police.

The 32-year-old was arrested at Washington Preparatory High School on Monday and booked on suspicion of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

Hogan, who began his career with LAUSD as a substitute teacher in November 2005, was assigned to Washington Prep as a teacher-intern in September 2006, LAUSD spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said.

Hogan was on a temporary contract and probationary status, Pollard-Terry said.

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Allegations of teachers committing sex crimes against California children increased last year, even though total teacher misconduct complaints declined, according to figures compiled by the state's Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

During the 2010-11 school year, the commission opened 129 cases involving allegations of sexual crimes against children. That was up from 112 cases the previous year.

Over the same period, there was also an increase in the number of allegations of non-sexual crimes against children – from 234 to 254.

In contrast, the total number of cases opened for all reasons declined – from 5,662 to 5,400, according to figures published in the Workload Report for the Divisions of Professional Practices Discipline.

Authorities have seen a surge in complaints in recent weeks since a longtime teacher at Miramonte Elementary School, Mark Berndt, was arrested and charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct.

Former substitute teacher Jorge Hernandez was investigated for suspected crimes at three schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. After a third case in 2007, he was compelled to leave.

However, this was not reported to the Credentialing Commission, and Hernandez found work with the Inglewood school district.

The commission is empowered to suspend or revoke the credentials of teachers once they are suspected of a crime or other serious misconduct, and removed from the classroom.

Whether notification was made within the required 30 days of change in employment status has come into question in two of the high profile cases coming to light in the glare of the Miramonte uproar.

While teaching third grade at Inglewood's Beulah Payne Elementary School in 2008, Hernandez allegedly molested an 8-year-old girl, according to Sanford Jossen, the attorney who has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the girl and her mother.

"How many times does one have to hear someone yell, 'fire,’'' Jossen said.

Hernandez was arrested in 2010 after he drove to another school, Gage Elementary in Huntington Park, and allegedly exposed himself to children outside.

During a post-arrest search of his home, authorities found videos they characterized as child pornography. Jossen's suit states that one of the videos depicts the molestation of the girl at Payne Elementary.

Hernandez jumped bail prior to a 2010 hearing, and is believed to have fled to Jalisco, Mexico, to escape prosecution.

In the Berndt case, after he was removed from his classroom at the beginning of 2011, a year elapsed before LAUSD reported this to the Credentialing Commission.

Supt. John Deasy acknowledged the error and said his district would renew efforts to comply with the reporting requirements.

The Commission revoked the credentials of 267 teachers during the 2010-11 school year, only one more than the previous year, and suspended 243 – an increase of 36.

The Credentialing Commission's awareness of cases relies on reports from outside agencies, including law enforcement and school districts.

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A 32-year-old Anaheim Hills teacher was charged Friday with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child between 14 and 15 years old, and police are asking the public to help identify potential additional victims.

Joshua Alexander Evans, of Fullerton, is accused of developing a relationship with a 14-year-old student, police said, adding that Evans groomed the student by sending her texts, emails and playing a cellphone game with her.

The suspected incidents – which include inappropriate kissing and hugging – reportedly occurred between Dec. 2011 and Jan. 2012 while Evans was an English teacher at El Rancho Charter School, police said.

On at least three different occasions, Evans is accused of meeting the suspected victim at another student’s home, police said.

Evans was arrested Thursday after the victim’s mother reported the case to the school, which then contacted Anaheim police.

If convicted, Evans would have to register as a lifetime sex offender, which would bar him from entering County recreation areas and City parks which have passed the Sex Offender Ordinance, police said.

Evans, the latest in a string of teachers arrested on suspicion of lewd behavior with students, is being held on $100,000 bail, and is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 27.

Anyone with information or who believes they have been a victim is asked to contact Supervising District Attorney Investigator Lou Gutierrez at (714) 347-8794 or Detective Joe Atkinson at (714) 765-1487.

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