Student who accused Martin Springer of sexual abuse recalls her accusations
Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Patrick Gannon (2nd L), Los Angeles Unified School District’s Steve Zipperman (2nd R) and Gardena Police Chief Ed Medrano (L) hold a news conference. The LAPD and LAUSD district officials are closing Miramonte Elementary School this week to investigate allegations of sexual abuse.
One of the girls who accused Los Angeles teacher Mark Springer of sexual assault has recalled her statements, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Martin Bernard Springer, 49, was arrested Friday after two students from Miramonte Elementary school accused him of fondling them, the Times reported. An anonymous source told the Times that one of the alleged victims had changed her story in the last few days. The charges against Springer now only involve one girl.
The school has been embroiled in a scandal since news broke at the end of January that another teacher, Mark Berndt, molested 23 children and took lewd photographs of the incidents.
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Two more teachers have since been implicated in the sexual abuse scandal, according to ABC news. On Monday, a third teacher was accused of bringing students to Berndt's classroom for sexual abuse. Attorney Brian Claypool, who represents three alleged victims, said he reported the unnamed teacher to the sheriff's department, ABC News reported.
Areceli Luisjuan, a teacher's aide at Miramonte, is also under investigation for writing love letters to a fourth grade student in 2009, ABC News reported. A spokeswoman for the district confirmed that Luisjuan had since been fired, but did not specify when the dismissal occurred.
An attorney who is representing some of the alleged victims told ABC news that the school had a systemic problem of abuse because of teachers that targeted children of single-family homes.
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Martin Springer has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, according to the Times. He is currently in jail on $300,000 bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons told the Times.
Springer had been teaching at the elementary school since 1986, the Huffington Post reported. Miramonte has been closed since Tuesday and its entire staff has been dismissed as officials continue to investigate the claims of sexual assault.