McMartin Fallout Eases; Preschools Again at Capacity

Four years after the McMartin child molestation case burst over the South Bay’s preschools, owners say that their nursery schools are filled to capacity and that time has eased most of the pressures generated by widespread sexual-abuse allegations.

“There was a cloud and it seems to have lifted,” said June Ingalls, who has operated the Southwood Preschool in Torrance for 19 years. “People understand that preschools are happy, safe places for little children.”

Enrollment at many preschools plummeted in 1984 and 1985 after the owner and six employees at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach were charged with molesting children in their care. Suspicions were raised about several other schools, although none of their employees were ever convicted, and charges were dropped against all but two of the McMartin defendants, who are currently on trial.

Confidence Restored

Today, preschool owners say, parental confidence in the nurseries has gradually been restored, and the main problem is trying to accommodate a rapidly growing demand for day care.

Despite the upbeat mood, however, some owners and preschool directors say that the fears and suspicions of the McMartin era linger in classrooms and on the playgrounds. They say that some teachers are wary about hugging toddlers in their care, and elaborate precautions, such as the presence of witnesses and detailed paper work on school activities, are taken to reduce the risk of accusations.

But the preschool officials maintain that the “McMartin phenomenon,” as one termed it, produced at least one positive result: greater parental awareness of the need to protect children from possible abuse.

“Parents are much, much more concerned about the care their children receive outside the family,” said Mary Jo Nicolino, director of the Creative Kids nursery in Manhattan Beach. “They really check out a school before they enroll their children, and they don’t hesitate to ask questions.”

Involvement of Parents

She said her preschool, which took over the Children’s Path nursery in 1985 after allegations of child abuse forced it to close, encourages parental involvement and frequent visits.

Still, Nicolino said, “it’s a sad fact” that a few parents refuse to allow their children to participate in certain school activities, such as field trips, and that some teachers “always have it in the back of their minds that showing affection for a child could be misinterpreted.”

Diane Harrington, director of the Little Red School House in Manhattan Beach, said her teachers also came to fear that affection could backfire on them.

“But after a lot of soul-searching, we concluded that if we had to stop the hugging, we might as well close the door and go out of business,” she said. “Affection is essential to a child’s psychological development.”

Terry Bostic, a spokeswoman for the Hickory Tree in Torrance, said the staff there is becoming more relaxed in handling toddlers. But teachers are not allowed to wipe the children after bowel movements, and at least two adults must be present to deal with any child’s complaint of an “ ‘owie’ in his or her private parts,” she said.

To find a preschool in the post-McMartin period, Deni Pulte of Redondo Beach took what appears to be a typical parent’s approach, judging by several interviews. Pulte said she made a list from a local phone book, then “weeded out most of the candidates” by talking with friends or driving by the preschools and assessing their appearance.

When she had narrowed the choices down to two, she said, she and her husband visited both of them with their daughter before picking the Magic Rainbow in Manhattan Beach.

“The teachers were friendly, they answered all my questions and the place was clean and well-supervised,” Pulte said. “That’s mainly what I was looking for.”

None of 10 preschools surveyed employ male teachers, who are viewed by owners as more vulnerable to accusations and more likely to raise apprehensions among parents.

Claudia Krikorian, owner of Montessori private schools in Torrance and Rolling Hills Estates, said she once actively recruited male teachers in the belief that small children, particularly those of single mothers, need a male role model during their formative years. But after a male employee at her Peninsula preschool was arrested on suspicion of child molestation and the school was forced by the state to close, she said she discouraged applications from male teachers at her Torrance preschool. The employee was never charged.

No one keeps track of how many children are enrolled in South Bay preschools. Local telephone books list about 130 preschools in the area, mostly small, locally owned operations. The government-funded Head Start program runs an additional 20. Assuming an average enrollment of 50--the statewide figure--the number of South Bay preschoolers can be estimated at 7,500.

Kathleen Norris, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services--which licenses nearly 8,000 preschools in the state with a total enrollment of 420,000--said rules imposed in the McMartin era have helped reassure parents that day-care centers are safe for their children.

Parents must now be provided with a state-approved brochure, she said, that outlines ways of preventing child abuse and symptoms to watch for. The brochure also lists the rights of parents, including the legal right to drop in any time at preschools where their children are enrolled.

Under pre-McMartin policies, Norris said, thorough checks are made into the backgrounds of teachers, who must be fingerprinted. State inspectors have become more vigilant for possible problems when they make unannounced visits at the preschools at least once a year, she said.

Norris said she believes that the “McMartin thing is pretty much behind us” in California’s preschools, “but I’d like to think that a greater public awareness (of child abuse) will remain.” She added that there is a shortage of day-care facilities statewide, even though about 2,000 new preschools have opened in the last three or four years.

The costs of changes made to alleviate concerns about possible child abuse have boosted tuition at South Bay preschools by up to 50% in recent years, according to several owners. Monthly tuition at better-known preschools now runs about $325 for five-day-a-week care.

Major factors, they say, were a 350% increase in liability insurance and substantial raises in teacher salaries.

“We felt we should reward the teachers who stuck it out with us,” said Harrington, the director of the Little Red School House. She said tuition at her school increased 23% three years ago and has continued with 8% to 10% annual rises since then.

Still, preschool pay remains relatively low--from about $4.50 to $8.50 an hour with a top of $10 for the most qualified teachers--Harrington and other operators said, and there is a a chronic shortage of qualified teachers.

Harrington said preschools are “not a highly profitable business,” and that factor, along with the “incredible cost” of building or leasing space along the coast, tends to discourage investment in new preschools.

Among recent victims of preschool economics was the Aladdin Day Care Center in Manhattan Beach, one of the larger preschools in the area with an enrollment of more than 100. It went out of business about a year ago.