Teacher held for lewd acts against 23 kids
Published:Wednesday | February 1, 2012 | 12:00 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP):
A Los Angeles elementary school teacher was charged with committing lewd acts against nearly two dozen students after a film processor gave authorities bondage-style photo-graphs showing children in blindfolds with their mouths taped, and some with giant cockroaches on their faces, authorities said yesterday.
Mark Berndt, 61, was arrested on Monday at his Torrance home and remained jailed on US$2.3 million bail, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department statement.
The charges involve 23 boys and girls ages six to 10 between 2008 and 2010.
The investigation started when the film processor gave authorities some 40 photographs depicting blindfolded children in a classroom with their mouths taped shut.
Berndt worked for more than 30 years at Miramonte Elementary School in an unincorporated area of South Los Angeles before being fired as a result of the investigation.
Some of the photos showed Berndt with his arm around children or with his hand over their mouth.
Other pictures depicted girls with what appears to be a spoon up to their mouths as if they were going to ingest a clear-white liquid.
Some of the children's mouths and faces had large, live Madagascar-type cockroaches on them, according to the statement.