OpEd: Public Should Know When School Employees Have History of Abuse

The opinion editorial below appeared in this week's Crescenta Valley Weekly.  I thought I'd share it with those you outside of the Crescenta Valley.

Public Should Know When School Employees Have History of Abuse

by Assemblyman Mike Gatto

In February, a major scandal rocked the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) when teachers at Telfair Elementary in Pacoima and Miramonte Elementary in South L.A. were discovered engaging in long-time patterns of abuse and misconduct.  Despite the allegations that teachers were sexually abusing students, the district failed to take action, prompting the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and the State Auditor to investigate how LAUSD handled allegations of abuse against students.

The report revealed a glaring flaw in school safety procedures – whereas teachers lose their ability to teach if they abuse a child, there are no similar mechanisms for the nearly 300,000 non-teaching school employees, such as janitors, teacher’s aides, bus drivers, office assistants, or groundskeepers.

While accusations of misconduct and disciplinary action against such employees are rare, these non-teaching staff are an everyday part of the education system and often have unsupervised access to students. Indeed, the recent arrest of a teacher’s aide in Lawndale who molested a student in full view of security cameras demonstrates that abuse by school employees can happen and should be taken seriously.

Current laws only require immediate reporting of child-abuse allegations against certified teachers, not classified employees or other personnel who do not maintain the same credentials as teachers. There is also no centralized mechanism to share information about the circumstances under which a classified employee leaves one school district to find employment in another district. Without such a system, a classified employee that is fired, resigns or settles during the course of a child-abuse investigation can easily return to work in another school district.

That’s why I introduced AB 349, which creates a landmark, statewide, information system to help prevent repeat offenders from retaining employment at a different school. This common-sense legislation requires school administrators to report to the Dept. of Education whenever a school employee is dismissed, resigns, is suspended, retires or fired as a result of a child-abuse allegation or while an investigation of alleged abuse is pending.

Protecting our children from predators while preserving the rights of individuals to be presumed innocent until proven guilty is a delicate balancing act. AB 349 maintains this balance with a simple reporting system that will provide hiring administrators the information they need to keep children safe.

Mike Gatto is a father and the chairman of the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.  He represents the cities of Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, the communities of La Crescenta and Montrose, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Atwater Village, and portions of the Hollywood Hills and East Hollywood. Email Mike at: assemblymember.gatto@assembly.ca.gov, or call (818) 558-3043.

EXAMINER: Need for more child welfare state audits

Eight year old Gabriel Fernandez was killed by his mother and her boyfriend after being tortured and abused.  He had a fractured skull, three broken ribs, BB pellets embedded in his chest and groin, cigarette burns on his skin and teeth knocked out of his mouth.

Marina Lumsden, June 11, 2013 -- The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that after the killing last month of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez of Palmdale, Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto of Los Angeles is demanding a state audit of L.A. County’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). An outside investigator might be able to shed some some insight into why the DCFS did not remove Gabriel from a situation that clearly looked like ongoing severe abuse. This is not the first time that DCFS has been accused of ignoring 'red flags' and subsequently leaving a child in a dangerous environment where he/she died.

L.A County is not the only Department of Children and Family Services agency that is taking real action in demanding that child welfare audits be approved and completed. Denver Post recently reported that the state auditor's office will review workloads of child protection staff and the way counties screen calls alleging abuse and neglect as part of two audits that could lead to major reforms of the child welfare system. The audits were requested by twenty-four lawmakers earlier this year after a Denver Post investigation. It found that more than seventy of the one-hundred and seventy-five children in Colorado who died of abuse and neglect in six years had families or caregivers who were known to child protection workers whose job was to protect them.

So what will come of these investigative audits? Is there little hope for a better outcome? Too many families in the child protection system and not enough caseworkers? No one will argue that the child welfare system is a sad state of affairs, but don't we owe it to our community's children to perform these audits and comb through finely what could have been missed with a new set of eyes. Eyes that are not completely strained, red, and horribly irritated with the everyday trauma and horror stories of abuse and neglect.

Child abuse needs to be one of those issues in which every individual and agency comes together for the greater good of our community's children and actively works to promote ideologies that could possibly work if everyone is on the same page from the start.

You can read this article and more at the Examiner by clicking HERE

Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the California State Assembly.  He represents the cities of Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Atwater Village, and portions of the Hollywood Hills and East Hollywood.  www.asm.ca.gov/gatto

WATCH IT HERE: Sammy Nikolayev CPS case triggers statewide audit

LISTEN IN: Assemblyman Gatto Calls for Audit of Child Protective Services agencies on KFBK Radio

Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the California State Assembly.  He represents the cities of Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Atwater Village, and portions of the Hollywood Hills and East Hollywood.  www.asm.ca.gov/gatto