Mar 14, 2008 9:22 am US/Pacific
LAUSD Head Deeply Sorry For Administrator Scandal
LOS ANGELES
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Markham Middle School Assistant Principal Steve Rooney, 39, was arrested last week.
CBS
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David Brewer says he is "deeply sorry" that an administrator who is being investigated for allegedly having sex with a student at Foshay Learning Center was transferred to Markham Middle School.
He told parents at Markham Thursday that he had not "slept well in days" and that he launched an investigation into "how a policy and system we have in place failed," the Los Angeles Times reported.
Assistant Principal Steve Thomas Rooney, 39, was arrested last week and charged with five counts of forcible lewd acts on a 13-year-old Markham student.
"I am deeply, deeply sorry . . . for this incident," Brewer told a gathering of more than 100 parents and students, according to The Times.
Rooney was arrested in 2007 for allegedly pulling a gun on the Foshay student's stepfather, but police said they did not file charges because the student was by then 18 and refused to cooperate.
A written district policy says in cases where law enforcement drops an investigation into a district employee, the school system has "a heightened responsibility for the safety of its students" and should continue to investigate even if police do not file charges.
The family of the Foshay student said the school system never sought them out, according to The Times.
Brewer's legal office will appoint an independent outside counsel to investigate what happened in the Rooney case.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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