PAPERWORK FOR PERVERTS?

According to the Los Angeles Times

L.A. Unified officials knew of molestation allegations against principal
Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times
In addition to charges of lewd acts against one student, Steven Rooney, seen in this March 19, 2008 photo, was charged with molesting two students at a Watts middle school.
He was moved to a desk job and later transferred to another school.

Senior Los Angeles school officials, including the district's police chief and its former chief operating officer, knew of sex allegations against a school administrator months before he was transferred to a Watts middle school, where he allegedly molested two students, officials said Monday. District officials have been heavily criticized for allowing former Assistant Principal Steve Thomas Rooney back into a school after he had been accused of sexual contact with a student. Until now, however, it was unclear how much school officials knew about the original allegations, how early they knew about them or how broadly that knowledge spread through the district's bureaucracy.

Statements on Monday by Dan Isaacs, who retired last year as the district's chief operating officer, and Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Charlie Beck make clear that the knowledge reached the highest echelons of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Beck said top district officials were told as far back as the spring of 2007 that Rooney was suspected of having had sex with a student at Foshay Learning Center, starting when she was 15 years old.

It remains unclear why the district allowed Rooney to work at Markham when several top officials knew about the molestation investigation. Assignment to a desk job is standard procedure for an employee who is suspected of improper activity but has not been determined to be guilty of an offense for which he could be fired. Isaacs said he didn't know what happened to Rooney's case after Isaacs' retirement in June. LAPD investigators became suspicious of Rooney's involvement with the Foshay student when they served a warrant in February 2007 on Rooney's downtown loft and found items that suggested he had an intimate relationship with the girl.While police did not tell the public about the molestation investigation, Beck said, they alerted school officials."The school district was fully informed about the nature of the crimes -- that is, sex with a minor," Beck said. "The conversation was very clear. Our detectives believed this man was having sex with a minor -- a student."

Thomas Arthur Beltran, 60, allegedly sexually abused students at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, detectives say

By Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer 2:15 PM PDT, May 6, 2008
A Santa Monica middle school teacher was charged today with multiple counts of sexually molesting five of his female students, officials said.Thomas Arthur Beltran, 60, was charged with 14 felony counts, including eight counts of a lewd act on a child, three counts of continuous sexual abuse and three counts of sexual penetration of a foreign object on a child under 14, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

The 30-year district employee was taken into custody after an investigation that began Friday, when the parents of a 12-year-old student of his brought her to police headquarters, police said. The child had told her parents that Beltran molested her, and she repeated her account to detectives. Investigators interviewed Beltran's other students and identified three others who allegedly were victimized, police said. Santa Monica police said the molestations occurred during school hours and that the suspected abuse of one student continued for more than a year."We believe there are more victims," Lt. Dan Salerno said during a Sunday news conference.On Monday, police said others had come forward with complaints.

Officials declined to say whether Beltran had been accused of improper behavior or disciplined in the past.