The L.A. Times reported today that Los Angeles school officials had transferred an associate principal to another school even though he was removed from a previous school where he was being investigated for having sex with an underage student.  Steve Thomas Rooney also allegedly pulled a gun on the girl's stepfather after their relationship was uncovered. 

Last week, the assistant principal, Steve Thomas Rooney, 39, allegedly molested a student at the new campus, Markham Middle School. He was arrested and charged with five counts of forcible lewd acts on a child, stemming from allegations that he sexually assaulted the 13-year-old girl March 1 and at least one other occasion.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials declined to comment Wednesday about how Rooney had been reassigned to Markham last fall, saying they are conducting an internal investigation and citing a policy barring them from speaking publicly about cases under those circumstances.

District policy requires officials to conduct their own investigation into employee misconduct regardless of whether the allegations result in criminal charges. Officials would not say Wednesday whether such an inquiry occurred in the earlier case.

Unfortunately, the issue of school districts investigating claims of sex abuse, or even disciplining for sex abuse, and then passing teachers along is not unique.  Last month The Oregonian wrote about a dozen cases in the past five years where complaints had been made about educators that were later convicted of sexual misconduct with a student.