Los Angeles teacher pleads not guilty to taking lewd photos of students

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Los Angeles teacher pleads not guilty to taking lewd photos of students



LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles teacher accused of taking sexually explicit photographs of his young students pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of lewd conduct at his arraignment Tuesday.

Mark Berndt, 61, allegedly took hundreds of photographs as he blindfolded young children and spoon-fed his semen to them in his classroom at Miramonte Elementary School.

The alleged offenses, which also include putting cockroaches on the children's faces, took place between 2008 and 2010 and involved students ranging in age from six to 10, police said.

He was arrested Jan. 30 after a yearlong investigation that began when a film processor discovered more than 40 photographs depicting children inside a school classroom with their eyes blindfolded and their mouths taped shut.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/21/los-angeles-teacher-pleads-not-guilty-to-taking-lewd-photos-students/?test=latestnews

[Neue Regel]

1. The LA School District paid him $40,000 to resign, rather than fire him

At least he has money to pay for an attorney

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/mark-berndt-miramonte_n_1268537.html

[saras]

2. WTF?? and not him, either

He started in 2008
The investigation took a year
it ended Jan 30, 2012
it started in Jan, 2011

Two full years, maybe as long as three, and NO ONE FUCKING NOTICED until a FILM PROCESSOR found FORTY PHOTOGRAPHS?!!! It's about as believable, to use Robert Anton Wilson's words, as "opening a door in your own house and finding James Bond and the President of the United States personally shooting it out with Fu Manchu and the five original Marx Brothers."

I can't even imagine, outside of 19th century British fiction, a kind of school in which that would be possible. No kids noticed? None said anything? To anyone? No parents? No observers, no supervisors, no principal? No windows in the classroom?

[boppers]

3. Images of kids blindfolded and tasting... something? Nothing? Who knows?

The images weren't blatant enough without people putting pieces together.