State to Appeal Ruling Letting Preschool Reopen

State officials said Wednesday that they will appeal a court ruling that allowed a Torrance preschool to reopen after it was ordered closed last year when a teacher was accused of sexually molesting students.

Peninsula Montessori School No. 1, closed by state authorities in December, 1985, was temporarily reopened only days later when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Morio L. Fukuto was assured by owner Claudia Krikorian that the teacher had been terminated.

Under Fukuto’s order, the school was to remain open pending a review of the process that led to the original closure.

According the latest ruling, handed down June 30 by Superior Court Judge H. Walter Croskey after a review of the case, that process was “unlawful” and involved a “prejudicial abuse of discretion.”

State Will Appeal

“We have decided the state is going to appeal,” said Kathleen Norris, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services. “We have instructed the (state) attorney general’s office that is what we want.”

Krikorian’s attorney, David L. Allen, said he is confident that an appeal will be unsuccessful. “Judge Croskey’s decision was unequivocal,” Allen said. “I don’t see the appellate court reversing it under any circumstances.”

In reaching his decision in favor of the school, Croskey said the evidence of sexual molestation presented against the teacher was “totally unconvincing.”

Teacher John W. Banta had been accused of molesting four students between February, 1983, and March, 1985, but no charges were filed against him.

Testimony ‘Uncorroborated’

“The testimony of each of the four girls regarding repeated acts of molestation on the school grounds by Mr. Banta was totally uncorroborated by other evidence,” Croskey wrote in his decision.

Moreover, the judge said, other technical violations used by the state in closing the school--violations that ranged from a leaky drinking fountain to failing to close a schoolyard gate--were not serious enough to warrant a license suspension.

“It was not a waste of time or money or energy to fight this,” Krikorian said. “I felt we would be vindicated. I feel pretty confident it will not be reversed.”

Meanwhile, a second preschool owned by Krikorian, Peninsula Pre-School No. 2 in Rolling Hills Estates, has remained closed since December, 1984, after it was determined that it was operating without a license and amid allegations that a teacher there had sexually molested a 4-year-old girl.

Krikorian and her attorney are also challenging that closure.