State Closes Another Preschool in Abuse Probe

Another nursery school in the South Bay area of Los Angeles will close Friday by state order, the latest development in a child molestation probe that has shut down seven other preschools.

The Peninsula Montessori School No. 1 in Torrance is being closed by the state Department of Social Services because of allegations that four children were molested there by the school director and because it operated above its capacity, failed to supervise children properly and did not maintain the required teacher-child ratio, according to department attorney Patricia Day.

Peninsula Montessori School No. 2 in Rolling Hills Estates was closed last December for operating without a license, amid allegations that a teacher’s aide there had molested at least seven children.

Criminal charges have not been filed against either the school director or the teacher’s aide.

Order Being Appealed

The owner of the two schools, Claudia Krikorian, said her attorney will file a motion today in Torrance Superior Court seeking to overturn the closure order, pending an appeal of the order.

Krikorian is challenging the constitutionality of the closed-circuit television procedure by which three of four child witnesses aged 4 to 7 testified during a three-week hearing before Administrative Law Judge Richard J. Lopez.

Krikorian said the kindergarten and elementary schools she operates at both locations will remain open.

She said that parents of the 54 children currently enrolled in the Torrance preschool program are unhappy that the school has been closed, and that she views the action as “a ploy by the state to close down schools.”

Seven Schools Shut

Although seven nursery schools in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Rolling Hills Estates and Torrance have been shut amid allegations that teachers or employees molested youngsters left in their care, criminal charges were filed against employees at only two: the founder and six teachers at the McMartin Pre-School and a playground aide at the Manhattan Ranch Pre-School and Kindergarten.

The McMartin case is in its 17th month of preliminary hearing. The charges against the Manhattan Ranch aide were dismissed early this month after an 11-week trial in which jurors deliberated for 13 days but were unable to reach a verdict. The prosecutor said the children’s parents did not want them to testify in a second trial.