John_Schwada's Blog

The phrase “dance of the lemons” got some air-time this week. It was used by an attorney for the 13-year-old girl, allegedly raped by Steve Rooney, 39, the assistant principal at Markham Middle School in Watts where the girl attended school.

The phrase refers to the alleged tendency of LA school district brass to rotate (“dance”) their most questionable human resources into the district’s toughest schools.

Not to toot my horn too much but it was Fox 11 News (producer Dan Leighton View Blogand myself) that broke the story that Rooney was also investigated in 2007 in connection with allegations he had sexual relations with another underage girl – this one a student Foshay Learning Center. Rooney met this girl at Foshay where he taught health and life skills classes. Their alleged affair did not begin – Fox 11 News was told – until later, when was promoted to an assistant principal job at Fremont High School.

When his alleged affair with the Foshay student was discovered and investigated by the LAPD, Rooney’s employer, the LA Unified School District, placed him on administrative leave. But when the girl ultimately refused to cooperate with police (who were investigating Rooney for statutory rape) and no charges were filed against him, Rooney was put back to work and transferred from Fremont to Markham.

It was at Markham that Rooney met the 2nd girl – a recent immigrant from El Salvador; during a court hearing this week, on the rape charges, I reported that the charges included allegations Rooney sexually fondled the same 13-year-old girl in his office, at school, during school hours just days before the incident where he allegedly raped her.

 Now Markham is a struggling school, in the heart of Watts, where rival gangs like the Grape St. Crips and Bounty Hunters fester in local public housing projects. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo a year ago took the unusual step of assigning prosecutors to work at the Markham campus with parents and school officials to break the cycle of gang violence and the recruitment of 12- and 13-year-old kids into the local gangs.

The “lemons” issue is this: critics claim LAUSD puts its most damaged resources – teachers, administrators, etc. – in its toughest schools where they won't upset the "good" kids and families. Another way of looking at it, the district puts the employees it can’t fire  into the toughest schools in order to get them to quit.

If this is what's happening,  the real losers are the kids.

By the way, don't try to get LA Unified to explain what's going on. It steadfastly blocks questions about its handling of Rooney over the past year, citing confidentiality rules.

When I started looking into this story I went to school district headquarters, signed in at the security desk (with my cameraman, with his large camera) and went to the 24th floor to meet – unannounced – with the district’s spokesperson. When we found the right office, the receptionist was irritated as heck that we’d managed to get by security. In fact, in our presence she called security at the front desk to reprimand them for letting us into the building without an appointment. I think we made it clear we’d make a stink if she tried to throw us out so we stayed until a PR person finally arrived to tell us – no comment.

LA Unified is a public agency, using billions of tax dollars, its bosses elected by the public, its affairs governed by the Brown Act (open meeting act), its records subject to the state Public Records Act. But it doesn’t always act like it.