School District Team Told to Stay Out of Molesting Case

Los Angeles School Supt. Harry Handler on Wednesday ordered the district’s psychological crisis team to stop contacting parents of 68th Street School students who are testifying in the preliminary hearing of a former teacher accused of child molestation.

The team’s involvement in the case has drawn the ire of the district attorney’s office, which said that its presence threatened to interfere with a criminal investigation as well as undermine the testimony of witnesses in the preliminary hearing for Terry Bartholome of Newbury Park.

Bartholome, 48, has been charged with one count of rape and 27 counts of molestation and lewd conduct for incidents that allegedly occurred between September, 1983, and November, 1984, at the South-Central Los Angeles school.

The district attorney’ office and the Los Angeles County Grand Jury are investigating why it took more than a year for school administrators to call police concerning molestation accusations made against Bartholome. Spokesmen for the district attorney’s office also have said they suspect that school officials may have participated in a cover-up.

School district officials, while saying they would end the crisis team’s activities, expressed amazement Wednesday that it had become an issue in the case.

“The district attorney completely misconstrued our intentions in sending the psychological team,” said Bill Rivera, a district spokesman. “Our motives were as clean as can be--to help children and their families. But the superintendent said that if the perception is that the team is hurting the investigation in any way, they should be pulled back.”

According to one law enforcement source, team members asked a parent if a child had been “coached” while preparing to testify. The source added that parents could have inferred from such questioning that the children had made up the alleged sexual advances.

Prosecutors also became worried when it was discovered that a subpoenaed witness was among the crisis team members contacting parents.

Prosecutors at first also believed that the team--created after the 1984 sniper attack that left three dead and 12 wounded at the 49th Street School--had asked a parent to sign a waiver releasing the school district from any civil liability in the molestation case. The document, however, turned out to be a standard medical waiver used by the district, both the school district and the district attorney’s office later confirmed.

On Tuesday, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and two top-ranking members of his staff held a meeting with school board President Rita Walters in which they asked her to convey their concerns about the team to Handler.

Early Wednesday, Handler announced that the team would no longer work on the 68th Street School case.

Walters then called an emergency executive session of the board to further discuss Reiner’s concerns about the investigation. At that meeting, the board voted to go along with Handler’s decision to remove the crisis team.

Rivera said that Handler did not want to be accused of “throwing sand in the machinery” of the district attorney’s investigation.

The spokesman added that Associate Supt. Sidney A. Thompson, who gave the crisis team permission to start contacting parents, “was flabbergasted” when he heard of the district attorney’s complaints about the team. He immediately called the district attorney’s office and volunteered to put a stop to the psychological team’s activities.

Thompson is one of six school officials ordered to appear before the grand jury to answer questions on the delay in reporting the alleged child abuse cases.

Rivera also said the district was unaware that a subpoenaed witness had been a part of the crisis team.

‘We Have No Idea’

“We have no idea who has been subpoenaed and who has not been subpoenaed,” Rivera said. “The district attorney’s office seems to have a complete misconception of what this team is about.”

But the district attorney’s office was still holding to its belief that the crisis team should have never entered the case.

“Our office does not feel that it is appropriate or helpful to send the psychological crisis team out there,” Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert I. Garcetti said Wednesday. “All the families, from the very beginning, have been advised of the availability of psychological counseling. This is nothing new.

“The real problem here is that the school district is in the position, at least there is an appearance of, a conflict of interest.”