Photos: Failure Gets a Pass
“I feel secure when she hugs me,” says this girl of her mother. She was one of three girls who testified in a successful civil lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School district that teacher’s aide Ricardo Guevara molested them. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
The mother of a girl who testified that teachers aide Ricardo Guevara molested her comforts her daughter and says of the nearly $1.6-million judgment the three plaintiffs won: It wont change things. It already happened. It affected her soul. The money doesnt cover whatever the damage does. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
Both of these girls, close childhood friends, claim in a civil lawsuit pending against L.A. Unified that they were molested by their fourth-grade teacher, Michael McMurray. It makes it easier to talk to someone whos been through the same thing, says the girl on the left. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
Steve Thomas Rooney was reassigned to Markham Middle School in Watts despite police suspicion that he had had a sexual relationship with a female student from Foshay Learning Center, where Rooney had been a dean. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)