The Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to pay $30.5 million to 19 more students who said they were victims of Mark Berndt, a convicted serial child molester, bringing the amount the district has paid out in connection with his crimes to more than $200 million, attorneys said Thursday.
The alleged victims were third-, fourth- and fifth-graders in Berndt’s classroom at Miramonte Elementary School between 1988 and 2011. The lawsuits allege that they were sexually harassed, abused and molested on multiple occasions, and in an infamous incident, some were fed cookies containing his semen. Berndt was arrested in 2012 and is serving a 25-year prison sentence for sex crimes involving students.
“Fourteen years later, victims are still coming forward, and that is remarkable,” said attorney Morgan Stewart. “The red flags were obvious here, and we are seeing more cases where the reports are ignored.”…