In 2008, another young girl stepped forward and told her parents about Mr. Beltran, she repeated the accusation to detectives and Beltran was arrested. Oh, some in the community were not happy. Comments were made that middle school girls can be mean and cruel, and not to be believed. Imagine, destroying a man's entire reputation and life!
The investigation concluded that at least eight girls were molested, all but one during school hours. It seems that Mr. Beltran used the same MO with each of his victims. All the young girls were students in Beltran's English as a Second Language (ESL) class. His victims came from the Ukraine, Korea, Mexico, and Iran.
The DA made the stunning announcement that a videotape of one of the assaults existed and suddenly Mr. Beltran's bond soared from $1 million to $3.3 million. Things did not look good for this tenured professional. Beltran, a family man, made the decision to plead guilty to multiple sexual assaults involving nine of his students and two others who were outside the statute of limitations. The principal and assistant principal were transferred.
Thomas Beltran was sentenced in December 2008 to 14 years in State prison.
"This is supposed to be Santa Monica," said the mother of a seventh-grader. "We sweat for this school, we begged for this school. This is the cream of the crop. We're told you cannot get any better than Lincoln Middle School. That's what we're told, and they failed us."
SMMUSD is the cream of the crop??? Pop your bubble and get real. Samohi is the other dirty secret. One of my kids graduated from Franklin, but it wasn't until I moved out of SM and my other child attended another elementary school that I realized I paid a gazillion dollars in housing/property taxes for mediocrity. Yes you can get better... a lot better than Santa Monica.
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