3rd-Grade Teacher from Chatsworth Jailed on Sex-Abuse Counts

Earlier Story: Arrest of Chatsworth Man Latest Revelation in Unfolding School Scandal

The Los Angeles Unified School District confronted a new set of sexual-abuse allegations  Friday, this one involving a Chatsworth man said to have abused four children while working as a third-grade teacher at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima, subjecting one victim to violence and the "threat of great bodily harm."

Paul William Chapel, 50, was arrested on Oct. 8, 2011, and booked on suspicion of molesting children, said Richard French of the Los Angeles Police Department. French declined further comment.

Chapel remains jailed in lieu of $2.2 million bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Inmate Information Center website.

A 16-count criminal complaint against Chapel lists charges of continuous sexual abuse against three girls and one boy, all under 14, between Sept. 13, 2010, and April 15, 2011, the Daily News reported.

He is also charged with a total of nine counts of committing a lewd act upon a child, with the boy and two of the girls identified as victims, according to the newspaper.

An additional three counts accuse Chapel of committing a forcible lewd act against the third girl named in the complaint. Those incidents took place between Feb. 1 and April 15, 2011, and involved "the use of force, violence, duress, menace and threat of great bodily harm," according to the complaint cited by the Daily News.

A detective told the Daily News that the alleged victims include at least one Telfair student, although there was no immediate word on whether the student was abused on campus.

A school district spokeswoman told the newspaper that Chapel has been placed on unpaid leave.

Schools Superintendent John Deasy said Friday morning he had no specific information about Chapel.

"We have 120,000 full-time, part-time and substitute employees ... The overall majority are phenomenal people, but there are individuals, just like in a city of 120,000 people, who do wrong things. They do things on their off hours and then they get into difficulty and if they, you know, if they are crimes they get arrested for it," he told CBS2.

• LAUSD board member Nury Martinez meets with parents of Telfair Elementary School students

Outside Telfair, parents Thursday expressed frustration at not having been told that a teacher had been arrested on sex-abuse charges, the Daily News reported. Their comments echoed those of parents at Miramonte Elementary School in the unincorporated Florence area, where authorities kept their investigation of a teacher secret for more than a year.

A Telfair teacher who asked not to be identified told the Daily News the faculty also had been kept in the dark about Chapel's arrest.

In recent weeks, the LAUSD has been flooded by a cascade of allegations involving inappropriate acts against children by district employees, including former Miramonte third-grade teachers Mark Berndt, who has been accused of feeding his semen to blindfolded youngsters in a bizarre "tasting game," and Martin Springer.

Springer, who was arrested a week ago, was released at 2 a.m. Friday -- wearing an ankle bracelet -- after posting a $300,000 bond, the Sheriff's Department reported.

Additionally, , 37, a janitor at Germain Elementary School in Chatsworth, was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing a lewd act.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted to fire not only Springer, but also Vance Miller, an award-winning music teacher at Alexander Hamilton High School on the Westside. He has not been criminally charged but was named in two civil lawsuits accusing him of molesting former students.

-- City News Service