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Miramonte Parents To LAUSD: We Won't Send Our Kids To School Thursday

Paige Brettingen |
February 7, 2012 | 12:35 p.m. PST

Special Projects Editor

Alfonso Andrade, 18, of Florence, is a former student of Miramonte Middle School. He voiced his support Tuesday for the teachers who may be removed from the school. "They were good to me," he said. (Paige Brettingen)
Alfonso Andrade, 18, of Florence, is a former student of Miramonte Middle School. He voiced his support Tuesday for the teachers who may be removed from the school. "They were good to me," he said. (Paige Brettingen)
UPDATED: 5:30 p.m.

More than 60 parents and their children gathered in the rain in front of Miramonte Elementary School Tuesday morning, making their message clear through their tears and chanting: They want their teachers back.

"We're shocked and upset for how the school district handled the problem. We never asked for all the staff and teachers to be removed ... There was a problem with the (language) interpretation," said Miramonte Elementary School parent Claudia Mortin, 36, of Florence.

The protest comes in the wake of recent revelations that two school teachers at Miramonte abused students at the elementary school.

Mortin, whose 10-year-old son attends the 5th grade at Miramonte, said she refuses to send him to school on Thursday if his teachers are not there.

"This will affect the kids emotionally, it will affect their grades. The kids won't feel comfortable because there will be no one there (who they know) anymore," Mortin said.

Having the day off from school, the students held up signs and sang songs in front of the classroom windows. Teachers at the school peeked out occasionally to wave and thank them.

One group of sixth grade girls sang and played guitar loudly for their music teacher, Mr. Vergara, to hear.

Language Arts teacher Mr. Gherna gave the students a message from behind the school's gates to a chorus of cheers and applause from kids and parents: "Remember to read, read, read! And thank you all," he said.

Former students also returned, showing their solidarity with the current students.

"What makes them think the new teachers won't do the same thing?" said Brenda Chavez, 21, a past student of Miramonte Elementary.  Chavez said she used to see the teachers who were arrested on abuse charges last week but was never in their classes.

"It's like punishing a whole class for something one kid did," said Carlos Arias, 15, who also is a past student.

Edward Ozuna, 36, of Florence has two daughters at Miramonte Elementary.  He said he has a lot of questions and isn't getting any answers.

"[The district] wants to put a social worker in each classroom which is good, but getting rid of the staff- that's not the whole problem.  [The district] is going overboard and wants to cover themselves," he said.

Instead of getting their questions answered, Leo Delgado of Happy Valley Enterprises said parents were told to put their questions on index cards at last night's meeting when the superintendent made the announcement about staff replacement.

Parents and students wore bandaids as a symbol for how the problem was being dealt with.

"It's covering the problem, but there's no healing," said Delgado.

Accompanying the parents were representatives from Happy Valley Enterprises who made calls to the district on speaker phone, demanding a meeting.

"We're putting together a petition of at least 200 names," said Happy Valley representative Jesus Alvarez. "There were lawyers here last night for the parents, but no one is here now. If this had been an affluent community, it would have been handled differently."

According to Alvarez, school representatives agreed to meet with the parents at Edison Elementary School at 2:45 p.m.

But at 2:45 p.m., the only meeting at Edison Elementary was a community meeting about its own campus.  It did not include anything about Miramonte Elementary School on the agenda.

Confused Miramonte parents returned to their own school where they arrived in time to share in the emotional goodbyes as teachers drove away.

LAUSD said it had no knowledge of the meeting.

"I don't know anything about it on our end," said Monica Carazo, the LAUSD communications officer, in a phone interview.  "The teachers at Miramonte were there this morning preparing for the transition, that's all," she said.

As far as what LAUSD will do if parents choose not to send their children to school on Thursday, Carazo said they are anticipating and preparing for that to happen, but she was not able to comment on how it will be handled.

According to Alvarez, many parents still plan on being at the school when it re-opens Thursday morning but will not allow their children to attend if the prior teachers are not also in attendance.



 

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