Attack on Teacher Is Investigated : Elementary School Intruder Escaped From Policewoman

An attack by an intruder who attempted to strangle a woman teacher has led to an investigation of security at a Southeast San Diego school, city schools Supt. Thomas Payzant’s office confirmed Wednesday.

The investigation followed complaints by teachers at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting of a Feb. 26 attack on teacher Cindy Jorgensen at Knox Elementary School, 1098 S. 49th St.

The teachers at the meeting were angry over both the attack and the fact that the assailant, who had been captured by faculty members, managed to escape after being placed in the custody of a school police officer.

Jorgensen was attacked while she was waiting in a classroom to speak to the parents of some of her students. Most students had already left the school.

The attacker reportedly looked into several classrooms and asked faculty members for the room number of someone he said was his former teacher.

The screams of a teacher’s aide, who witnessed the attack on Jorgensen, alerted other faculty members.

Assailant Chased

Teachers chased the assailant out of the school and caught him as he attempted to scale a 10-foot fence. School police officer Cilvia Bate was at a nearby school when she responded to a call about the incident.

When she arrived, the teachers handed over the assailant to her and she put him in the back seat of her police car without handcuffing him, despite, teachers said, being urged to do so. A few moments later the attacker bolted from the car and escaped.

Jeff Tschiltsch, a Knox teacher, said the school hasn’t been the same since the incident occurred.

“There are teachers who would leave here as soon as they could,” he said. “They’re afraid. If it happened once, it can happen again.”

Jorgensen, who was not seriously injured, has not returned to teaching since the attack and will be transferred to another school, officials said.

Tschiltsch said teachers made four major demands at the Tuesday school board meeting. They were:

- That a full investigation be made into the conduct of Bate, a 13-year veteran of the school police force.

- For an agreement that would have regular San Diego police respond to school emergencies along with school police. Currently, only school police answer such calls, teachers said.

- Installation of intercoms or an alarm system in all of the elementary school’s classrooms.

“There is no way, in some of these classrooms, to get help at all,” Tschiltsch said.

- The assignment of two teacher’s aides to patrol school grounds full time. School officials said that there are no full-time police working out of the school, leaving much of the patrol duties to the elementary school’s principal and vice principal.

‘Very, Very Competent’

Alex Rascon, director of San Diego school police, said that he had no problems with Bate’s handling of the incident. “She is very, very competent and she knows her business well,” he said.

Rascon said it was departmental policy for officers to avoid handcuffing individuals who might be under the influence of PCP, a drug that often causes violent reactions. Teachers at the scene, however, said the man appeared to be drunk, not under the influence of the drug.

Rascon said Bate placed the suspect in the car and moved a few feet away in order to question witnesses. She left the door open, he said.

“I don’t think that Cilvia Bate was derelict in her duties,” he said. “The individual was sitting down in the seat with the door open. Cilvia was standing close by.

“The guy just got up, sprang and ran,” he said. “People get away from police all of the time.”

Bate could not be reached for comment.