Grand Jury Subpoenas 5 in School Sex Probe

The investigation into why it took Los Angeles Unified School District administrators more than a year to tell police about child molestation accusations at 68th Street School widened Monday when at least five district officials were subpoenaed to appear before the Los Angeles County Grand Jury today.

School and law enforcement officials confirmed that William R. Anton, deputy superintendent and the second ranking official in the district, and Sidney A. Thompson, an associate superintendent, were among those subpoenaed. The names of the others ordered before the grand jury were not divulged.

Last week Anton and Thompson, along with 13 other district employees, were targeted for questioning by the special investigation division of the district attorney’s office in an attempt to determine if state child abuse reporting laws were violated by the delay in informing police about the allegations against teacher Terry Bartholome, 48, who has been charged with 1 count of rape and 27 counts of molestation.

Minimal Contact

Only Thompson had any contact with the investigators, however, because the employees had been told by Ron Apperson, the district’s legal adviser, that they should not give statements until the issue of who would represent them was settled. A district spokesman said that Thompson’s contact with the special investigation division was minimal.

Top school district officials refused to speculate on why they thought Anton, Thompson and the three others were being called before the grand jury. Others within the district said, however, that Apperson’s advice to the employees could have been interpreted as a lack of cooperation on the district’s part.

In a prepared statement before Monday’s meeting, school board President Rita Walters urged “all employees to cooperate with any investigation conducted by the district attorney or the grand jury.”

The district has been under fire since it was disclosed that Bartholome continued teaching at 68th Street long after allegations had been made to the school’s principal that he was molesting students there.

Bartholome, who taught at 68th Street from September, 1983, to December, 1984, was transferred to that school from 107th Street School after an investigation into child molestation allegations there was cut off when the parents of a witness refused to allow her to cooperate with police.

Alice McDonald, 68th Street principal, was informed of those accusations and told to call region headquarters if any more incidents involving Bartholome occurred.

Legal Counsel Approved

McDonald called region headquarters shortly after Bartholome arrived. School district officials said they believe that McDonald thought that regional officials would call the police and that the region supervisors believed that McDonald would be the one to make the call.

State law requires that school officials report any suspicions they have of physical or sexual abuse. District policy adds that reporting child abuse cases is not a “hierarchical” procedure and that reporting it to authorities is the responsibility of the person who first spots the abuse or to whom the abuse is reported.

On Monday the board, meeting in an executive session, approved hiring outside legal counsel to defend any employees who might be charged with the commission of a crime because of their involvement with the reporting delays.

The board also said it may hire an outside agency to conduct an investigation into the district staff’s apparent slowness in reporting the allegations. Such an investigation would be in addition to one conducted by Apperson.

The legal adviser presented his findings to the board during the executive session, but the results were not publicly disclosed. Board members gave no hints that they were displeased with the results, however, and district spokesman Bill Rivera said the proposal to hire an outside firm may be “a way to get above and beyond the Apperson report” or may be simply to confirm the findings of the district’s investigation.