Los Angeles, CA. (May 14, 2008) - Councilmember Bernard C. Parks and Councilmember Janice Hahn held a news conference to discuss a motion they introduced Wednesday, May 14, 2008 that requests the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board and appropriate staff come before the LA City Council to provide details of Assistant Principal Stephen Rooney’s arrest for alleged sex crimes against underage students. Parks and Hahn also sent a letter to the Board making the same request last week.
“These kids are not just under our jurisdiction when they are out of school,” said Councilmember Parks. “As elected leaders we owe it to the children and their loved ones to protect them whether they are on school grounds or not.”
LAUSD has come under intense criticism for its handling of the case of Steve Rooney. In February 2007, the LAPD told district officials that Rooney was suspected of having sexual contact with a student at Foshay Learning Center in South L.A. After initially assigning Rooney to a desk job, school officials transferred him to Markham Middle School in Watts. According to the LA Times, that transfer appears to have violated district policies, which require officials to conduct an independent investigation of abuse allegations before allowing a teacher or an administrator who has been accused of sexual misconduct to return to a school.
“We need to demand transparency from the LAUSD on how officials are reassigned,” said Councilwoman Hahn. “Would this man have been assigned to a school in a more affluent area? Never again should our children have to worry about being sent to the principal’s office for bad behavior and finding out the bad behavior is in the principal’s office.”
Rooney was charged last month with five counts of forcible lewd acts with a 13-year-old student at Markham. Now, he has been charged with molesting a second Markham student, a 14-year-old girl. Moreover, prosecutors said Monday they now had enough evidence to charge Rooney with molestation in the Foshay case, in which he previously had not been charged. In that case, he is alleged to have had sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl, beginning in 2005.
Foshay and Markham are located in Parks’ and Hahn’s districts respectively. They are asking the LAUSD Board for complete and total transparency to get to the bottom of the allegations and for information regarding the people and circumstances that surround them.
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