One child may be a victim of 2 Calif. teachers

February 5, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES

In 2008, a second-grader at Miramonte Elementary School went home from school and showed her parents two photos she said were taken by her teacher, Mark Berndt.

One photo shows her with two other girls, standing against a wall. The second shows her biting down on a small cookie. A shiny, light-colored substance is visible on top of the cookie.

The parents said they found the photos strange and went to Miramonte’s principal at the time to complain. They say the principal looked at the photos but dismissed their concerns, suggesting that the photos might be part of a class project.

The girl was later transferred to the classroom of Martin Bernard Springer. There, the father said, his daughter said Springer touched her on the leg and thigh.

The parents put it behind them until last week, when Berndt was charged with 23 acts of lewd conduct against students in his classroom. Berndt, 61, reportedly spoon-fed his semen to children as part of what he called a “tasting game” in which children were blindfolded and, in some cases, gagged with tape. Authorities said they have hundreds of photos he took in the classroom showing the scenes.

Then on Friday, Springer was arrested after two students said he touched them improperly within the last three years.

Law-enforcement sources said Saturday that detectives believe the girl was a victim of Berndt and Springer.

She is one of the two students whose allegations led to Springer’s arrest, and detectives have been investigating her accusations against Berndt as well, the sources said.

The detectives have seen records confirming that she was transferred from Berndt’s class to Springer’s, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The accusations by the second-grader’s parents raise more questions about how much officials knew about Berndt’s behavior. Two former students of Berndt’s, who are now adults, said in interviews with the Los Angeles Times that they thought they saw the teacher masturbating behind his desk in the 1990-91 school year. A counselor at the school told a group of students at the time not to make up stories, one of them said.

In 1994, a girl reported that Berndt had tried to touch her genitals. Detectives investigated but no charges were filed.

Berndt is being held on $23-million bail. His attorney has declined requests to comment. Springer is also in jail and could not be reached to comment.

The Times talked to the parents of the second- grader after being contacted by their attorney, Matthew McNicholas, who said he plans to file a claim against the Los Angeles Unified School District. They allowed The Times to look at the two photos, which have time stamps on the back that indicate they were developed in August 2008, a few weeks after the girl started second grade.