Who Do You Have to Screw to Get Fired Around Here? – Part 2 – UPDATED

Okay, first we have the case of former Assistant Principal Steve Rooney. who was suspected of having sex with a student in early 2007 at Foshay Learning Center in South L.A. (and may or may not have pulled a gun on the girl’s stepfather when the dad was….uh….a bit upset).

What did LAUSD do with Rooney and his rampant libido and his alleged predilection for underage paramours (not to mention his reported fondness for firearms)? They first briefly transfered him to a desk job, then to transferred him to Markham Middle School in Watts. (Nevermind that a school dean at Foshay had possession of a scrapbook documenting the student’s relationship with Rooney.) At Markham, Rooney allegedly molested two new students.

Now that Mr. Rooney is in jail awaiting trial for molesting now a grand total of three students—including the former Foshay student—the district did thankfully see fit to terminate him.

Which brings us to today’s LA Times story:

Richard Winton, who has really been on top of the various permutations of the school sexual abuse stories, reports that a LAUSD police officer named Luis E. Barrazais is suing the district with the claim that he was retaliated against for reporting allegations that a substitute teacher at South East High School sexually abused a student. Here’s the heart of Winton’s story.

According to prosecutors, a student in October told South East High Principal Jesus Angulo and Assistant Principal Maria Sotomayor that she had had sex with a substitute teacher, Jesus Saenz

During questioning by the administrators, which lasted two to three hours, the girl recanted, authorities said. The administrators then told a school police officer about the girl’s allegation but didn’t tell local police or child services, as required by law. State law specifically states that reporting such claims to a school police officer is not sufficient.

Barraza alleges in his claim that the student went to his office in February, upset that nothing had been done. She said she recanted earlier because “after speaking with the principal and assistant principal she became afraid to go forward with her allegations,” according to Barraza’s claim. The student alleged that the substitute teacher took her to a hotel where they had sex, Barraza contends.

Barraza said he documented the girl’s allegations [ital. mine] and forwarded the information to the South Gate Police Department. Saenz, Angulo and Sotomayor were arrested.

In May, eight days after their arrests, Angulo and Sotomayor were allowed to go back to work. The day they returned, Barraza alleges, he was transferred.

Brewer defended the decision to reinstate the administrators, saying it was needed to avoid disrupting the school. District officials have acknowledged that the substitute teacher is related to another assistant principal at the school but say it did not influence how the incident was handled.

In the interest of fairness, it’s important to note that, judging by some of the posts on a very lively, school-related website, it appears that Mr. Angulo and Mrs. Sotomayor are well liked. It also appears that the accused teachers, regularly and openly flirted with students, and many can’t understand why Angulo And Sotomayor failed to report him when accusations of abuse first surfaced.

Ray Cortines is reportedly looking into the whole issue (as well he might).

I have a call into the attorney for the school cop. If he has anything interesting to say, I’ll let you know.

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UPDATE: This story was updated on 7/23/2015. Since we wrote this story seven years ago, we have been informed that the photo we posted of two LAUSD administrators whom we were originally told were then-Principal Jesus Angulo and then-assistant principal Maria Sotomayor, in fact depicted Sotomayor and a completely unrelated administrator, who had nothing to do with the problems we reported. We are very sorry for any confusion our error may have caused.