Reuters 
 
 Yikes. Rafe Esquith—perhaps the most decorated elementary-school teacher in the country, the only K-12 educator ever to receive the National Medal of the Arts—has been accused of sexual misconduct in shocking documents released Tuesday by Los Angeles Unified School District. 
 
 Until he was removed from the classroom this spring, Esquith, 61, had taught fifth grade at Hobart Elementary School, a high-poverty school in Los Angeles with an overwhelming percentage of English-language learners, for more than 30 years. Esquith’s “Hobart Shakespeareans” nonprofit, which puts on a Shakespeare production every year in his classroom, became world-renowned, the subject of a PBS documentary, and a resplendent example of the miracles that committed public educators can work even in challenging school environments. When he wasn’t transforming young lives, Esquith was writing inspirational books and accepting lots of awards: In addition to the National Medal of the Arts, his prizes include Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award, Disney’s National Outstanding Teacher of the Year award, and even Dalai Lama’s Compassion in Action Award. 
 
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 And now for the it-was-all-too-good-to-be-true part: According to the Los Angeles Times, this spring, one teacher reported that Esquith had made an inappropriate joke about Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, saying that if he couldn’t raise enough cash to fund the annual production, the class would have to perform naked. Then there was: 
 
 an incident from March 2015 in which Esquith told a student who had completed his work that he could “surf the net for porn. That’s what we do in our spare time.”… Esquith told a student who would appear in an upcoming play that “if the audience doesn’t like his performance, he can perform while nude, or at least wear a fig leaf. And, from what I’ve heard, it would be a small fig leaf.” 
 
 These claims kicked off Los Angeles Unified’s investigation into Esquith, who was removed from the classroom pending its findings. In October, he was fired, a move greeted with outrage all over the country. In the Washington Post, education columnist Jay Mathews, who had named Esquith “America’s Best Classroom Teacher” in 2007, wrote that:* 
 
 He has been dismissed for murky reasons that appear to be part of a witch hunt against hundreds of other L.A. educators … the result of L.A. school leaders losing touch with reality after being traumatized by a molestation scandal a few years ago. 
 
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 But now, with the 66-page document dump, those reasons no longer seem so murky. 
 
 While Esquith has not been charged with a crime (though the documents do allege that, even before he became a teacher, Esquith fondled several children in the 1970s), he comes across as a desperate, preening, pathetic predator: the last person you want near your kids. He’s accused of spanking, fondling, and tickling female students; making grossly inappropriate comments (saying, for example, that one student “loved green M&M’s because they made her horny”); and screening movies with sexually inappropriate content to fifth-graders after school. 
 
 And then there were the emails. Lots and lots of legitimately grotesque emails, addressed to students who were at most 14 years old, that lay bare the consummate creepiness: He addressed one student as “Supermodel” and signed off to another as “Your Favorite ATM.” The Wednesday Washington Post story about the allegations uses one of his lines as its headline: “How is my favorite Hottie?” And this, from the Los Angeles Times: 
 
 In one 2013 email, Esquith praised a former student, who was 14 years old, saying she was “Beautiful. Elegant. Dazzling. Sexy. Gorgeous.” And in the same conversation writes “don’t argue, hottie.” He later writes to her, “you’re soooooooooooooooo fine.” 
 
 The conversations include one in which the girl thanks him for giving her lunch money and “for the hundreds and hundreds” he’s given her. 
 
 Captain Inappropriate wrote another girl, “You will do WELL wherever you go because you’re great, but I want you to be happy and have lots of guys and beer and drugs and all the things that make high school great!” 
 
 Before the documents became public, Esquith’s lawyer accused the school district of constructing a “fraudulent narrative” as part of its “latest effort to smear.” In October, Esquith filed a $1 billion class-action lawsuit on behalf of approximately 2,000 LAUSD teachers who were removed from the classroom for no clear reason—part of an age-discrimination scheme, the suit alleged, to place pressure on teachers approaching retirement age to resign without the full pension and benefits they’d earned. We’ll see how that one works out. ||||| -/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 ||||| FILE - This image provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department shows Martin B. Springer, 49, who was arrested Feb. 3, 2012 in Los Angeles. Prosecutors have filed a lewd-acts complaint against... (Associated Press) 
 
 A teacher charged in a sex abuse scandal that has rocked a Los Angeles elementary school is free on bail. 
 
 The Los Angeles County sheriff's department says Martin Springer was released early Friday. He had been held on $300,000 bail. 
 
 The sheriff's office says he was fitted with an electronic ankle monitor. 
 
 The 49-year-old has pleaded not guilty to committing three lewd acts on one girl in class in 2009. He was arrested last week after two girls said he fondled them, but one has since recanted her allegation. 
 
 Springer's arrest came shortly after another former teacher was charged with 23 counts of lewd acts upon children. Mark Berndt is accused of feeding his semen to some students during "tasting games" in his classroom from 2005 to 2010. 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
 
 Some students wrote farewell letters to their former teachers. Even though it was the middle of the school year to them, it was the first day for the new staff of an elementary school where every worker was replaced following the arrests of two longtime teachers on lewdness charges. 
 
 "You had to go because of somebody evil," one first-grader wrote, according to counselor Gina Adelman. Others wrote "you were a good teacher" and "I will miss you." 
 
 Miramonte Elementary School students returned to class for the first time Thursday since the entire 120-member staff was replaced in an unprecedented move by the Los Angeles Unified School District. 
 
 The day got off to a rough start with the teachers union president assailing the reassignment of teachers as a stunt and about 100 parents and students blasting the move. 
 
 United Teachers Los Angeles President Warren Fletcher said teachers were being "tarred and stigmatized for no reason" and that grievances would be filed against the district on behalf of some 85 reassigned teachers. 
 
 "It is crystal clear that LAUSD doesn't have a plan," Fletcher said. "They're making this up as they go along, and students at the school are paying the price." 
 
 Superintendent John Deasy said the makeover was needed to clear the school from a cloud of distrust and suspicion stemming from the arrest of former third-grade teacher Mark Berndt. The 61-year-old has been charged with 23 counts of lewd acts upon children, ages 6 to 10, accused of feeding his semen to some students during "tasting games" in his classroom from 2005 to 2010. 
 
 A second teacher, Martin Springer, 49, was arrested last week after two girls said he had fondled them in class in 2009. Springer pleaded not guilty after he was charged with committing three lewd acts on one girl in 2009. The other girl has since recanted her allegation. 
 
 About 100 parents and children protested with signs saying "Give us our teachers back" and chanting "no new teachers" as TV cameras rolled. 
 
 Parents attended a meeting with the new principal, but many emerged dissatisfied, saying the district went overboard. 
 
 "My son liked his teacher," said Jose Vargas, shaking his head. 
 
 Deasy said replacing the staff, from janitors to principal, was necessary to restore trust among parents in the largely poor, Latino neighborhood of unincorporated Los Angeles County. 
 
 Whether any of the previous staff will return to Miramonte will be determined after the district completes its investigation into how Berndt's alleged activities went undetected for so long, he said. 
 
 The teachers were told via a notice of administrative transfer that on Monday they will report to a nearby unfinished high school, where they will be interviewed while the investigation is ongoing. 
 
 In the classrooms they left behind, children and teachers were adjusting. 
 
 In Martha Cedeno's first-grade class, pupils told her where to find the gym schedule and explained they were to play volleyball, according to a pool report. 
 
 Parents were offered the option of transferring their children to another school. District employees were on hand to give parents information about other schools in a two-mile radius and charter schools. 
 
 Parents said children were confused since they were just getting to know their teachers. 
 
 "It's kind of hard," said Lorena Soriano, whose sixth-grader attends Miramonte. "You barely know your teacher, and they're gone. The kids don't know what's going on." 
 
 The new hires, which include a retired principal, 81 teachers and dozens of support staff, will cost the cash-strapped district $5.7 million, said district spokesman Thomas Waldman. The new staffers were recently laid off and were on a rehiring list. 
 
 The district also faces potentially millions of dollars in legal costs as lawsuits are filed. Three lawsuits were filed on Tuesday, and claim notices have been filed for at least four other lawsuits. 
 
 A number of parents have opted to file lawsuits instead of going to sheriff's detectives because they are illegal immigrants and are afraid they'll be deported. 
 
 Assemblyman Tom Ammiano said he will reintroduce a bill this month that will protect children and domestic violence victims from deportation. 
 
 "What does it say about our society if parents won't speak to the police when their children are in danger?" Ammiano asked. "Enough is enough. Every parent regardless of immigration status deserves access to the police and to know that their children are being protected." 
 
 The lawsuits allege the district and Principal Martin Sandoval failed to adequately safeguard the students against Berndt and Springer. 
 
 The school's reopening follows revelations that 200 more inappropriate photos of children were discovered, and that one teacher sent birthday cards and presents to students who participated in his games. 
 
 Many of the photos involve children already identified by authorities, but there may be other victims, authorities said. 
 
 Like the pictures that first alerted authorities to Berndt, the photos show children ages 6 to 10 blindfolded and being fed a milky, white liquid that authorities believe was semen on spoons or cookies. 
 
 Berndt taught for 32 years at the South Los Angeles school. He remains jailed on $23 million bail and could face life in prison if convicted. 
 
 The furor over his arrest led two parents to come forward last week to complain about Springer, who had worked at the school for 26 years. 
 
 Detectives said there is no evidence that the two men acted in concert.
– The man Slate calls "perhaps the most decorated elementary-school teacher in the country" is facing allegations of "immoral" and "egregious" behavior—including fondling three children—in the wake of an investigation by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The Los Angeles Times reports fifth-grade teacher Rafe Esquith was fired in October and an investigation launched after a fellow teacher accused him of making jokes about nudity to his students. The results of that investigation were released this week. According to the documents, problems for Esquith started in the 1970s, when he was accused of fondling two boys and a girl. And a former student recalled Esquith putting her on his lap and touching her buttocks and spanking other female students in the 1990s. Other details included in the documents: Esquith allegedly had photos of nude women on his work computer, joked about the size of a student's penis, tickled a female student, and told a fellow teacher that a student liked green M&M's because "they made her horny." The Times reports email records indicate Esquith was acting as an ATM for former students while sending them inappropriate messages. He reportedly told a 14-year-old former student she was "sexy," a "hottie," and "soooooooooooooooo fine." To another he allegedly wrote: "I spank really hard!!! Your bottom will hurt for months." According to Slate, Esquith—who specialized in minority and low-income students—received the National Medal of the Arts, as well as awards from Oprah, Disney, and the Dalai Lama. He was even the subject of a PBS documentary. The Times reports Esquith denies doing anything wrong. (Elsewhere, a "teacher of the year" honoree quit after being informed she was not qualified.)