text: In June 2009, the mother of a fourth-grader made a discovery that is now the latest incident under investigation at Miramonte Elementary School: a teacher's aide was allegedly writing love letters to her 11-year-old son.One letter, meant as a short-term farewell note, included a passage that the mother found especially disturbing: "When I was writing this letter, I was crying. My heart was breaking into pieces," wrote the teacher's aide, who has been identified as Areceli Luisjuan. "Oh! I didn't tell you that I like when you put your arm around my shoulder, and if I told you not to do that it's because I don't want to put you in trouble, but I like it…"The episode has become the subject of a law enforcement inquiry and an internal review by the Los Angeles Unified School District . According to the mother, however, sheriff's deputies and the school system failed to take her seriously the first time she brought the matter to their attention.The second look is part of a wide-ranging review of everything and everyone associated with Miramonte, a school that exploded into public attention with last week's arrest of veteran teacher Mark Berndt.Berndt, 61, faces 23 counts of lewd conduct charges for, among other things, allegedly taking pictures of students who were being spoon-fed his semen as part of what he called a "tasting game."After Berndt's arrest, allegations emerged against a second teacher, Martin Bernard Springer, 49, who was charged Tuesday with fondling a 7-year-old girl in his class.The Berndt case in particular has raised questions about whether the school properly handled misconduct issues in the past.The love letter was first detailed in a July 2009 article in Hoy, a Spanish-language publication that is part of the same publishing group as The Times. In interviews with The Times this week, the mother recounted her experience in Spanish.Efforts to reach Luisjuan were unsuccessful."When you get close to me, even if you give me the chills I like that," continued the letter, which is written in English. "Don't tell nobody about this!" (The word "chills" is underlined.)At the bottom, the writer penned the student's name four times, signed it "Sad Girl" and then added: "Read the letter and throw it away. I don't want your mom or brother to find it."The mother, whose name is not being released to protect the identity of her son, a minor, said she believes there were about three letters, although she only had one to show to a reporter. The first item she found, in 2009, was a drawing of a crying woman that also was labeled "sad girl."She noticed the drawing when it happened to tumble from its perch in her son's room. The fall also dislodged a cellphone number from a corner of the frame. When she confronted her son, he showed her two letters.The crying picture, she later learned, was prompted by Luisjuan's pending relocation to a nearby middle school. The transfer apparently was planned before the mother complained, she said.The mother, who said the aide appeared to be in her 50s, immediately went to see her son's teacher. But the teacher told the mother that she could get into trouble for making up stories.In an incident with Berndt, children who reported that he appeared to be masturbating behind his desk were reportedly told the same thing, a former Miramonte student said.The mother in the latest case said she is struck by the resonance with her experience."When the mother abuses her kid and they find out at school they throw all the authorities at you," she said Tuesday. "But what happens when it's the other way around? I couldn't do anything."She did not produce the letters at the time of her first complaint.She said she next went to the Sheriff's Department, which directed her to return to the school to handle the matter.At a second meeting, those present included the mother, her son, the teacher, Luisjuan and an assistant principal.According to the mother, Luisjuan admitted writing letters and drawing the picture. Luisjuan compared her affection to that of a grandmother for a grandson, the mother said. The mother was sent home, but not before she insisted on a written record of the meeting, which she kept."Why would they pay attention to me?" the mother said. "I'm a single mother and Mexican."The aide delivered the final letter, the one quoted above, on the same day as the meeting, June 23, 2009. She also allegedly gave the boy a gift: a crystal, heart-shaped bowl full of candy.When asked about the incident by Hoy, L.A. Unified spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry said that "as of today" Luisjuan no longer works for the school system.This week, district officials had trouble finding a record of either the employee or what had happened. It was being researched, spokesman Thomas Waldman said. ||||| -/AFP/Getty Images Mark Henry Berndt, 61 has been arrested for allegedly taking photos of blindfolded and gagged students with roaches on their faces and spoons of semen to their mouths. 
   
   A lawyer for alleged victims at Miramonte Elementary School is implicating a third teacher at the troubled campus where one staffer allegedly fed students his semen and another fondled second-graders. 
   
   Two female students allegedly abused by teacher Mark Berndt claim their female teacher regularly pulled them out of class and escorted them to Berndt’s door for his twisted games, lawyer Brian Claypool told the Daily News Tuesday. 
   
   Berndt, 61, was arrested last week and charged with binding and blindfolding dozens of students and subjecting them to lewd acts for his sexual pleasure between 2005 and 2010, authorities said. 
   
   ENTIRE STAFF SUSPENDED IN SEX ABUSE PROBE AT LOS ANGELES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
   
   “I believe she aided and abetted him in carrying out abusive acts. I believe she worked in concert with Mr. Berndt,” Claypool said of the third, unnamed teacher. “They had adjoining classrooms, and he’d come in every other day in the middle of the day, and he’d go up to her and whisper in her ear. She’d start giggling and then pick out two pretty girls and walk them over to the door.” 
   
   Claypool said he interviewed both of the girls involved, and they independently corroborated each other’s story. They also told him Berndt regularly acted as the female teacher’s substitute and brought food to her classroom covered with a creamy substance, he said. 
   
   GIRL WAS VICTIM OF BOTH TEACHERS CHARGED IN L.A. CHILD ABUSE CASES 
   
   “He would tell them, ‘Your teacher will be out again tomorrow, so I’m having a party for you,’” Claypool, who represents five victims in the overall case, said. “He would make food and bring in for kids and say, ‘Don’t tell your parents.’ He made homemade cookies with semen as the cream and fed it to the kids.” 
   
   Investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have not publicly identified any suspects beyond the two teachers arrested last week. 
   
   A prosecution source said the District Attorney’s Office was not aware of a related case involving a female teacher. 
   
   “I am 100% sure this (female) teacher had to have known something,” Claypool told The News. 
   
   Asked what motivation she might have had for letting a colleague abuse her students, Claypool said that was a question for investigators. 
   
   TWO TEACHERS CHARGED IN L.A. CHILD ABUSE CASES KNEW EACH OTHER 
   
   “Maybe it was for control, the thrill of getting away with something. The pretext for all of this was a game,” he said. 
   
   He said he’s demanding that Berndt be tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. 
   
   Miramonte, meanwhile, is closed Tuesday and Wednesday after parents staged a protest at the campus Monday morning. 
   
   District officials announced Monday night that the entire staff would be temporarily transferred as investigators continue to probe what staffers might have known about the two teachers: Berndt and Martin Springer. 
   
   The “clean sweep” is meant to rebuild confidence, Los Angeles Superintendent of Schools John Deasy said. 
   
   Springer, 49, was arrested Friday on suspicion of fondling two girls inside his classroom sometime in the last three years. 
   
   Investigators have not disclosed any evidence of conspiracy between the two men. 
   
   Claypool said students have described them as “best buds.” 
   
   The sickening case went public last week when authorities said Berndt photographed dozens of students in shocking situations for his own kicks. 
   
   Some pics show children with a giant live cockroach crawling on their faces or a blue plastic spoon allegedly filled with his semen up to their mouths, authorities said. 
   
   Berndt allegedly told the kids they were playing a “tasting game,” a Sheriff's Department source told The News. 
   
   District officials originally said they were not aware of any complaints against the teachers, but prior accusations have since surfaced. 
   
   On Saturday, authorities revealed that a female student may have been the victim of both teachers. 
   
   The girl and her parents complained to school officials in 2008 when she was a student in Berndt's second-grade class and brought home strange pictures, the Los Angeles Times reported. 
   
   Officials dismissed the complaints, and the girl was transferred to Springer's class, where he allegedly touched her on the leg and thigh during the school day, sources told The Times. 
   
   Last Thursday, authorities acknowledged that 18 years ago, a 10-year-old girl claimed Berndt tried to fondle her. The case was investigated by the Sheriff's Department, but prosecutors declined to pursue the case citing a lack of evidence, officials said. 
   
   Berndt was removed from his classroom last year after a pharmacy photo technician printed some of the disturbing images and alerted local police. 
   
   ndillon@nydailynews.com
target: – A third teacher has been implicated in the burgeoning child sex scandal at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. A lawyer said two victims were regularly escorted by a female teacher to the classroom of Mark Berndt, 61, who has been charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct, reports the New York Daily News. “I believe she aided and abetted him in carrying out abusive acts. I believe she worked in concert with Mr. Berndt,” said Brian Claypool, who is representing five possible victims in the case. “They had adjoining classrooms, and he’d come in every other day in the middle of the day, and he’d go up to her and whisper in her ear. She’d start giggling and then pick out two pretty girls and walk them over to the door," added Claypool, who did not name the teacher. Miramonte, one of the nation's biggest elementary schools, remains closed today following major protests after the arrest of two teachers charged with sex abuse and the announcement that the entire staff will be replaced. Investigators are also now looking into a "love letter" written by a school aide to an 11-year-old boy describing her "chills" when she was close to him, and telling him to throw the letter away so it wouldn't be found by the boy's brother or mother, reports the Los Angeles Times.