Lincoln teacher pleads not guilty to 9 felonies
AIRPORT COURTHOUSE A Lincoln Middle School teacher arrested last month on sexual abuse allegations was charged on Friday with nine more felony counts involving three female students, bringing the total number of suspected victims in the case to eight.
Thomas A. Beltran, 60, was arraigned on the additional counts at the LAX Superior Courthouse, pleading not guilty to all nine counts, which includes six for lewd acts on a child and three on accusations of continuous sexual abuse.
The nearly 30-year veteran of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District faces life in prison. His bail remains at $3.3 million.
Beltran, a Los Angeles resident, was arrested on May 3 after investigators interviewed a 12-year-old student who claimed she was sexually abused, detectives concluding that there could possibly be other victims. He was charged later that week on 14 sexual molestation counts related to inappropriate conduct with five girls, one of whom was allegedly molested for more than a year.
The new charges relate to alleged molestation incidents that took place between September 2000 and June 2004, the encounters involving three students under the age of 14. Beltran, who was placed on compulsory leave without pay, was a seventh-grade English as a Second Language teacher.
He is due back in court on July 17 to set a date for the preliminary hearing.
The investigation is ongoing, said Jane Robison, the spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office.
Facing scrutiny from parents after they learned Beltran was investigated on similar allegations in 2006, the Board of Education reviewed the district’s child abuse reporting procedures on Thursday, considering changes that could be adopted later this month.
District officials were made aware of the investigation days after Beltran’s arrest, receiving a copy of a letter by then principal Kathy Scott about a student who was uncomfortable with her encounters with the teacher. The letter was submitted to the district by the Santa Monica Police Department.
The letter details a conversation between Scott and Beltran about the student’s unease, the teacher responding that he was shocked that his actions were misinterpreted as inappropriate. The principal instructed the teacher not to touch any of his female students, to which he was in agreement.
Surprising to many parents was the incident was not reported to the superintendent and that the district did not have a copy of the letter on file.
“This lack of reporting and record keeping is shocking,”Michael Chwe, the parent of two Lincoln students, said.“Equally disturbing is the fact that the SMMUSD has yet to give a coherent explanation for it.”
The district’s policy in its current form requires that a school administrator who receives a report of sexual abuse must refer it to the police department or county Department of Child and Family Services.
“This has been an issue of a lot of scrutiny,” Mike Matthews, the assistant superintendent for human resources, said.
An ad hoc committee charged with reviewing the existing policy convened for the first time last Monday, the parents suggesting the district be responsible for schooling staff and students about the dangers of child abuse, including how to identify warning signs and react appropriately. The committee’s suggestions could be folded in with the policy recommendations to the school board.
Among the proposed revisions — which do not include the ad hoc committee’s suggestions — already presented to the board, was a requirement that reports of alleged abuse be forwarded to the superintendent.
The proposed revisions would also hold the superintendent responsible for providing training on an annual basis.
School board members stressed the importance of moving the changes forward in an aggressive manner. The board could formally adopt the new policy at its June 26 meeting.
Jose Escarce, the board vice president, cited a study that found approximately 9 percent of students in a school district are abused by an educator. If the statistic held true in Santa Monica-Malibu, it would mean about 270 students at Santa Monica High School would have been abused at one point, Escarce said.
“You learn the reason a student gives as to why they do not report these things is they believe they won’t be believed,” Escarce said. “The really sad thing is even when accusations are made and even when they turn out to be true, often nothing happens …. To read about that is truly astonishing.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 7, 2008. Read the original PDF.