Prometheus 6

Cornfield worked with students ranging in age from 14 to 18 at Del Rey, a continuation school that provides a smaller and more personalized environment for students considered at risk of not completing their education, said district spokeswoman Monica Carazo.

L.A. Unified principal posed as a girl in chat room, authorities say
Del Rey Continuation's Randolph Cornfield was arrested in June for allegedly having child pornography images on his home computer.
By Victoria Kim
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 4, 2008

A Los Angeles school principal who has been charged with possessing child pornography had posed as a 12-year-old girl in an online chat room and engaged in sexually explicit talk, authorities said Thursday.

Randolph Barnett Cornfield, 60, principal of Del Rey Continuation School in Westchester, was arrested in June when investigators allegedly found images of child pornography on his home computer.

Los Angeles police investigated Cornfield, a 28-year veteran of the Los Angeles Unified School District, after a man reported meeting a 12-year-old girl in an online chat room who made "very crude, sexually graphic statements," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Marc Beaart of the district attorney's High Technology Crimes Division.

"We were concerned initially because, geez, there's a 12-year-old out there that's being sexualized and possibly molested, and trolling for adult male partners," Beaart said.

But when they looked for the person behind the screen name, investigators said, they discovered it was Cornfield. Police said they found child pornography on Cornfield's home computer and other digital media, leading to his arrest.