Schools’ Child Abuse Report Policy to Stand

The Los Angeles school board, under fire because a principal and school administrators had delayed for more than a year in reporting accusations of child molestation by a grade school teacher, on Thursday decided not to make major changes in the district’s child abuse reporting policies.

“I think the policy is clear enough and it is clear enough, at least to me, that district policy and procedures were not followed,” board member Jackie Goldberg said.

However, the board said that a few minor changes and adjustments are needed to ensure that principals and teachers know that it is district policy to call police immediately whenever child abuse or molestation is suspected.

The board decided to examine the reporting policies after 68th Street School Principal Alice McDonald and several top-ranking administrators failed to call police concerning allegations by students that they were being molested by Terry Bartholome, 48.

Bartholome has been charged with one count of rape and 27 counts of molestation and lewd conduct. A preliminary hearing is under way to determine whether he will stand trial in Superior Court.

Associate Supt. Sidney A. Thompson suggested that school personnel may be required to annually sign statements showing that they have reviewed the reporting policy. Currently, only new employees must sign statements showing they understand the reporting provisions.

Additionally, Thompson said that the district’s legal adviser will be asked to review the policy to make sure that allegations against school staff be handled the same way as allegations by children of abuse in the home.

“The policy states that the person suspected of the child abuse should not be contacted when a district employee makes a report to the police,” Thompson said. “In most cases, however, when a student charges a teacher with some type of improper conduct, the principal will go to the teacher and ask for his or her side of the story.

“The question that has to be addressed is, should the principal say anything to the teacher who has been accused of child abuse?”

Meanwhile, at Bartholome’s preliminary hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Rita Stapleton read to the court a statement that Bartholome made to detectives in January while he was being investigated.

Bartholome, of Newbury Park, said that girls in his third-grade class were “very mature” in their knowledge of sexual matters, “much more than girls that age in other parts of the city,” and that his 68th Street students talked about “sexual things.”

In one instance, according to Bartholome’s signed statement, he drew human genitalia on the chalk board and “told them how it works.”

Bartholome also added in his statement that “I think my sexual feelings are being caused in part by my need to leave the inner-city schools.”