Schools Detail Report Policy on Child Abuse

Beginning next month, all Los Angeles Unified School District employees must sign a statement acknowledging they understand child-abuse reporting policies requiring them to call police immediately if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that a child has been sexually or physically abused.

The board’s decision Thursday to have teaching and non-teaching employees sign the statement follows sharp criticism over the district’s response to child-abuse allegations. In one case a school principal and several administrators delayed for more than a year in reporting accusations of child molestation by a grade school teacher.

Former 68th Street School teacher Terry Bartholome is accused of molesting 17 elementary school girls between September, 1983, and November, 1984. Bartholome, 48, is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail and has pleaded not guilty to 45 molestation counts.

Having the district’s 55,000 employees sign the statement is one of several steps the board has decided to take to shore up the district’s child-abuse reporting procedures.

On Sept. 10, Supt. Harry Handler will describe the new procedures in his annual address to staff members. The speech will be broadcast on the district’s KLCS-TV Channel 58.

After the speech, every employee will receive a packet containing copies of the district’s current child-abuse reporting policies and the address and telephone numbers of the nearest police or sheriff’s station. The packets will also include instructions on the proper response to situations in which child abuse is suspected.

This is the first time the district has given its employees detailed instructions on how to report child-abuse accusations. The instructions also contain assurances that the district will defend non-teaching employees against lawsuits that might arise from such allegations. Teachers are currently protected from such lawsuits by state law.

Also on Thursday, the board ordered all principals to sign a statement certifying that they have established child-abuse reporting procedures at their schools and that they have discussed those procedures with their staff. Before the board’s action, only two of the district’s eight regions required principals to make such a declaration.