Sex Education…..Again

Yesterday it came to light that Foshay Learning Center in South LA was faced with another sex-related teacher scandal when a 27-year-old band instructor named Lief Albaugh was arrested at around 8 pm the night before after detectives from LAPD’s juvenile division seized both Albaugh’s personal laptop and his school computer and allegedly found …um…kiddie porn.

Police aren’t yet saying how they were tipped off to the alleged presence of the pornography on the Foshay teacher’s computer.

If you’ll remember, Foshay Learning Center is the same school that was severely criticized for failing to act when Foshay’s former assistant principal, Steven Thomas Rooney, was accused of having sexual relations with an underage student for nearly two years and it has been alleged that faculty in a position to know failed to report the sexual abuse and may have actively helped to cover it up.

In fact, rather than investigating Rooney, LAUSD put him briefly on a desk job and then transferred him to Markham Middle School where he allegedly molested two more female students—this time the girls were even younger.

At present Rooney is in LA County jail facing more than a dozen felony counts including felony child sexual abuse, rape and statutory rape .

In addition to the criminal charges brought against the former school administrator, a civil suit was filed late last week in LA County Superior Court and a read-through of the text of the complaint is a bit hair-raising. It describes how the sex between Rooney and the Foshay teenager (whom we’ll call Lacey, although that’ s not her real name) allegedly began when she was fifteen years old and a 9th grader, and that it continued until June of 2007, when she was seventeen. It also charges that the sex took place primarily on school grounds, when the two would closet themselves in Rooney’s office, and that “Lacey” would often miss her other classes with the excuse of “I was in Steve Rooney’s office.” The attorneys who filed the complaint say that have a list of witnesses who have come forward who say that Rooney and “Lacey” were considered an item on campus.

The complaint further alleges that a swell fellow named Alan Hubbard, the Dean of Students at Foshay and supposedly Rooney’s pal, was approached by Lacey who was distressed because Rooney was pressuring her about the statements she’d finally made to police about the relationship. According to the lawsuit, Hubbard counseled the girl to tell the police she’d lied about having sex with Rooney—which appears to be what occurred.

And then Rooney was transferred to Markham where, it is charged he molested two more girls..

By the way, after little searching I managed to locate “Lacey’s” my space page. Her page shows a very pretty girl with huge, startled eyes, and a mouth that appears to be wrestling against tears.

Next to her name, which she has surrounded with hearts, she has posted the following motto: “WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER…”