4 Counts Filed on Educator in Abuse Coverup

A high-ranking Los Angeles school official was charged today with four misdemeanor counts of failing to tell police that a teacher was suspected of molesting several girls in his third-grade class.

Stuart Bernstein, 48, could face up to two years in Los Angeles County Jail and fines of up to $4,000 if he is convicted of all the charges, City Atty. James K. Hahn said at a morning press conference.

In a complaint filed in Los Angeles Municipal Court, Bernstein was charged with failing to obey a 1981 state law that requires anyone who suspects that child abuse is occurring to report it to authorities immediately by telephone and in writing within 36 hours.

Bernstein, chief administrator of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Region C, is the first person that the city attorney’s office has prosecuted for failing to obey the reporting law, said Deputy City Atty. Mary E. House.

Hahn said that Bernstein was told last Dec. 3 that Terry E. Bartholome, a teacher at the 68th Street School, was suspected of molesting some of his students, but that Bernstein failed to notify police, either by telephone or in writing.

In the next two weeks, Bernstein received more information about the alleged molestations, but failed to report that as well, Hahn said.

Bernstein has been ordered to appear for arraignment in Municipal Court on Dec. 18.

Bartholome, 48, who has since been fired, is awaiting trial in Los Angeles Superior Court on 45 molestation charges.