Angry Parents Jam Molestation Meeting

Angry parents packed the Pinewood Avenue Elementary School auditorium Tuesday night, saying they were the last to learn about molestations of 11 Sunland-Tujunga girls.

“If the parents don’t know about it, how can we protect our children?” asked Tammy Wallace, one of about 200 parents who attended an area Neighborhood Watch meeting.

Earlier Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council authorized a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the molestations.

Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district includes Sunland-Tujunga, requested the reward. “We want to do absolutely everything we can to get the quickest apprehension,” he said.

Five Guardian Angels attended the parents’ meeting. They were among 14 who have been patrolling streets near area schools since the middle of last week.

Steve Kirkman, head of the Los Angeles chapter of the Guardian Angels, said he hopes their presence will scare the molester away. Group members handed out flyers at the schools and at the meeting, where a sketch by a Los Angeles Police Department artist was shown.

Although the molestations began in the summer, it was not until the ninth incident in early November that Los Angeles police realized that the incidents might be linked, said Police Lt. Rick Violano of the Foothill Division. In each case, a young, tall man with dark, curly hair lifted a girl’s skirt and fondled her, police said. The victims have been between the ages of 7 and 12.

Three of the molestations occurred on or near elementary school campuses. The rest occurred on area streets.

Even after police linked the incidents, most school principals in the area waited a week or two before notifying parents. In that time, more molestations took place.

“I don’t think we did as good a job as we can,” Foothill Division Capt. Tim McBride said when asked at the meeting why parents had not been alerted earlier of the molester’s pesence. “Could we have prevented some attacks? We don’t know that.”

Wallace said she first read of the molestations in a newspaper. She said it was not until she complained to Pinewood Principal David Sanchez that a notice was sent to all parents.

However, Sanchez said he only learned about the molestations Nov. 2, when both the parent of a victim and another principal told him about similar incidents.

Sanchez and principals from other area elementary schools said they did not want to alarm parents prematurely. “At first, these seemed to be isolated incidents,” Sanchez said. “If we sent home notices every time there was a flasher in the community, we’d be sending out notices all the time.”

The parents found an ally in Roberta Weintraub, Los Angeles Unified School District board president.

“The feeling of the Board of Education is you tell the parents everything,” she said.

Since police realized that the molestations were related, they have increased patrols in the area, Violano said.

School police also have increased their visits to two or three times a day instead of the usual once-daily drive-bys, said Richard Green, chief of school police for the school district.

At the meeting, parents also questioned the security of school perimeters. Parent Debi Statland said that at Apperson Street Elementary School, where the latest molestation occurred Nov. 18, four gates are always open.

Principals said they have tried to tighten security by checking locks on fences and by asking staff to frequent hidden areas between buildings. However, most principals said their schools are difficult to enter undetected.