School district officials scramble to find answers to parents’ questions regarding the arrest of Lincoln Middle School teacher Thomas Arthur Beltran.
By Laura Tate / Associate Publisher / Editor
As upset parents demand answers regarding a Lincoln Middle School teacher who was arrested for allegedly molesting possibly as many as 10 students-and who was investigated for sexual abuse two years ago-school officials are scrambling to come up with new policies to address such cases.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education at its meeting on Thursday will address policy changes regarding how it handles child abuse reporting to the district.
“At Thursday’s meeting Superintendent Dianne Talarico will outline some steps to be taken,” Assistant Superintendent Mike Matthews said on Tuesday. “[It] certainly will include revised policy regarding child abuse reporting … to the authorities.”
Thomas Arthur Beltran, 60, who has taught at Lincoln Middle School for 20 years, was arrested May 3 for allegedly molesting five female students in his classroom. More victims have come forward since the arrest, and officials say the alleged abuse occurred possibly as far back as 1998.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office charged Beltran with 14 felony counts of sexual molestation, including eight counts of a lewd act on a child, three counts of continuous sexual abuse and three counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object on a child under 14. He remains in jail in lieu of $3.3 million bail.
The district has had several meetings already with parents, teachers and district officials. However, some parents say their questions and concerns are not being answered, and one parent is planning a walkout at Lincoln on Thursday to bring attention to the disconnectedness from the district and school.
Karl Rumburg, whose 12-year-old daughter attends Lincoln, said in an interview with The Malibu Times, “A whole group of us are … demanding an honest conversation from them [school officials]. The frustration comes from that they’re not conversing with us … no details, what’s in the works to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Board of Education member Kathy Wisnicki said staff has had several meetings with parents, family members, school site administration and teachers to offer crisis intervention and counseling.
“I like to think this is a rare and horrible occurrence,” Wisnicki said. “We are now dealing with the emotions involved … [and need] to go forward to provide support they need to get through this crisis.”
Wisnicki added that everyone needs to “get through the crisis, and then think long-term” regarding how to deal with reporting policies.
In the case two years ago, then-principal Kathy Scott had written a letter addressed to Detective Lloyd Gladden of the Santa Monica Police Department reporting that a student informed the school’s assistant principal, Francis Costanzo, that she “felt uncomfortable being in Mr. Tom Beltran’s class because of the way he touched her.”
The police department investigated and turned the matter over to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, but charges were not filed because of lack of evidence, district attorney officials said.
Sandy Gibbons, L.A. District Attorney spokesperson, told The Malibu Times in an interview Tuesday that “additional evidence [has since been] obtained,” and now the 2006 allegations are being included in the charges against Beltran.
The board of education President Oscar De La Torre said the board was not informed of the complaint two years ago.
The Los Angeles Times reported that De la Torre said the school board only learned last week of the investigation. “There was a transition in leadership, and I think the communication [channels] suffered a breakdown,” De la Torre told the Los Angeles Times. “The school board was never alerted to the allegations in 2006.”
Scott is no longer with the district, and school officials say there was nothing in Beltran’s personnel files about the complaint.
The superintendent of the SMMUSD at the time, John Deasy, left the district in 2006. However, assistant principal Costanzo, to whom the complaint was first reported, is still at the school.
Calls to Deasy, Scott and Costanzo were not returned. An e-mail to De La Torre was not returned.
Beltran continued to teach English as a second language at the school until he was arrested.
School board member Wisnicki, who has been on the board since 2004, said she has a “vague recollection” of an incident two years ago, but does not know if it was regarding Beltran, noting that sometimes the board is informed of incidents without names given.
“[Board] members are always updated when something happens,” she said.
Meanwhile, parents want answers as to how this could have happened, and demand that changes take place so it won’t happen again.
In a letter to Superintendent Talarico that was posted on a Web site created by Lincoln parent Michael Chwe, Lincoln Middle School parent Leslie Wizan wrote: “How many of these memos and letters are there in the district files where a teacher was kept in the classroom because of a presumed misunderstanding with a child regarding inappropriate touching, when in fact, the teacher should have been deployed to work in the district offices to work with adults? I suggest the district go through all its paperwork and review each and every complaint. Then, remove any questionable adult who has contact with children.”
“It’s imperative that you take the safety of our children-physical and emotional-more seriously than you have since 2006,” Wizan added.
Rumburg blasted school officials in a letter he sent to parents and to this newspaper.
“First let me say how very disappointed and extremely angry I am with how Lincoln has handled this situation, past and present …,” Rumburg wrote. “The meeting yesterday [May 5] was a joke. No apology was made. No one accepted any responsibility. No new information was given. Lincoln parents were not allowed to speak directly with those who should be held accountable for the system (or lack thereof) breaking down.
“No real solutions were put forward. No explanations were given how 4 … now 5 … probably 35 by the end of the week … of our innocent children were irreparably harmed …”
The Web site for documents and statements regarding the Beltran case is www.linconcommmunity.googlepages.com