SIGNS OF CHILD ABUSE

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Miramonte School's Decision to Replace All Staff Announced In Parents-OnlyMeeting 

Originally posted: 02/ 7/2012 4:05 pm

The Huffington Post (video)

Edited by I,Praetorian

In an effort to take his message directly to the families ofMiramonte Elementary, LA schools superintendent John Deasy shared the news ofthe entire faculty's replacement in a parents-only, press-barred meeting onMonday evening.

Officially scheduled for 6 p.m. in the auditorium of SouthRegion High School, families started showing up to the venue hours early. 1,200people quickly packed the standing-room only auditorium and dozens of familieswere left stranded outside the meeting, along with journalists who were notallowed inside.

Before the meeting was over, Deasy's staffers usheredreporters into a smaller room, ostensibly to prepare for a press conference.But the move also had the effect of secluding journalists in a more isolatedlocation when the meeting let out, making it that much harder to gauge parentalreactions.

When Deasy finally arrived for the press conference, he wasfaced with about a dozen irritated journalists who peppered him with challengesto his decision to bar media from the big event.

For instance, Deasy described the parents' reaction to thestaff replacement as "relief" communicated by frequent applause. Butthat only fueled the fire for the reporters challenging him.

KTLA's David Begnaud asked, "Why did you decide to keepmedia out of the meeting with the parents so we are hearing secondhand on howthey reacted from you?" Begnaud continued, "On what legal grounds doyou bar someone with no recording equipment from coming into themeetings?"

KCAL9's Suraya Fadel also challenged Deasy. "You cantell us they applauded and all that. How do we know?"

Throughout, Deasy stood firm on his decision to keep pressout of the meeting. Recalling the media's announcement of teacher Mark Berndt'sarrest last week, he explained, "Parents were so angry and so disrespectedthat they learned the information first through the media and not through thedistrict ... And I wasn't going to disrespect them a second time."

His decision to bar journalists didn't stop KNX's ClaudiaPeschiutta, who was able to make her way into the auditorium. In a video reportfor CBS2/KCAL9, Peschiutta confirmed Deasy's report that parents communicatedtheir approval of the staff replacement through applause, but she also notedthat some parents were asking that the press be allowed inside to make surethat the meeting was "as open and transparent as possible."

WATCH:click here

The Associated Press' video report also notes that manyparents were glad to hear the news about the staff's replacement from thedistrict first -- although perhaps not at the expense of freedom of the press.Miramonte mother Nancy Linares told the AP, "I want everyone to knowthey're covering up something, that's why they don't want the media in there."

For parents who could not get inside, the parking lot was adark and tense place to wait for a secondhand announcement. Families huddledwith friends and there was tension between those who decided to speak out aboutthe abuse on television and those who decided to keep quiet. Among the crowd,parental activists were passing out petitions to transfer their children awayfrom Miramonte Elementary School. Near the entrance of the auditorium, a smallgroup of parents protested the closed doors with chants and by banging on thegate.

Unaware that the announcement inside was making her worriesmoot, Miramonte parent Elizabeth Varela told The Huffington Post that she andher husband were struggling over the decision to transfer their 5-year-old sonin the middle of the academic year. "I've never thought of Miramonte as abad school," Varela explained, but "now we're hoping he's accepted[somewhere else]."

Karla Rivas, a 20-year-old college student, waited outsidethe parents-only meeting because her little brother was in 8th grade at theschool. Both she and her brother were former students of Bernard Springer, ateacher who was arrested on suspicion of fondling two girls. She expresseddismay at parents who were shouting and chanting with protest signs when theywere stranded outside. "They're screaming that they want justice,"she said. "What else do they want? [Berndt and Springer] are in jailalready."

"Somewhere I read that the Greatness of America is the Right to Protest for Right!" Lest we continue to forget.