Suspect in Death of Boy Was Fired By PTA Centers : Crime: A man accused of killing a Northridge boy failed to heed warnings about inappropriate punishment, officials say.

A former child-care worker, jailed in the slaying of an 8-year-old Northridge boy whose body was burned beyond recognition, had been fired in the last three months from two PTA-run day-care centers for failing to heed warnings by supervisors to stop punishing children so harshly, PTA officials said Sunday.

Gregory Scott Smith, 21, who is being held at Ventura County Jail for investigation of the slaying of Paul Bailly, also was fired from part-time jobs at two San Fernando Valley elementary schools after supervisors complained that he argued with them and would not obey orders, PTA officials said.

Smith’s supervisors complained that he would “ridicule and make fun of children in a way hurtful to their self-esteem,” said Cecelia Mansfield, president of the 31st District Parent Teacher Student Assn., which operates day-care programs at 17 elementary schools for 800 children in the San Fernando Valley.

The most recent job Smith lost was at Darby Avenue Elementary School in Northridge, the school the Bailly boy attended and from which he disappeared Friday morning after being dropped off by his mother.

Los Angeles city school district officials said Sunday that the boy’s death will prompt a review of the security measures employed by the San Fernando Valley PTA’s child-care program, which earlier this year received national recognition as an outstanding volunteer agency. But after an emergency meeting Sunday, PTA officials said the program was not to blame for the child’s death.

Authorities say Bailly disappeared shortly after being dropped off by his mother about 7 a.m. Friday at the Darby Avenue School’s PTA-run child-care center. The boy’s gagged and burned body was found in a field south of Simi Valley about noon Friday.

Smith was arrested early Saturday near his Canoga Park home after attempting to flee from police.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Lt. Joseph Harwell said authorities are working to put a case together against Smith for presentation to the district attorney’s office, probably on Tuesday. He said investigators are planning to show Smith’s photo to potential witnesses today.

But Harwell said they have been unable to find a witness who could put Smith at the place where the boy was dropped off Friday morning for school. “That’s one area we’re pursuing,” he said.

Barry Hammond, an attorney for Smith, said Sunday that his client is “innocent. They’ve picked up a suspect and now they’re trying to make a motive. I’ve seen no evidence connecting him to the crime.”

Smith, an athletic-looking man who frequently showed up to work in shorts and carrying a school bag, had worked mornings at the Darby school since September, 1988. He had completed a yearlong child-care vocational course at Chatsworth High School, said Harold Kuhn, executive director of the PTA’s Project Latchkey child-care program.

Smith was fired in March from Darby school, less than a month after the PTA hired a new child-care director there, Kuhn said. Smith had also been fired in December from a similar program at the Chatsworth Park School after complaints by the director there, Kuhn said.

Kuhn said Smith’s supervisors complained that Smith would punish children for misbehaving by forcing them to sit on benches for much longer than appropriate. Kuhn also said supervisors reported that Smith made fun of children by, for example, asking them: “Where did you get those clothes? The Goodwill?”

Nathaniel Wright, a Northridge parent of a boy in the Darby child-care program, said his son, Chris, 9, complained that Smith was “aggressive and short-tempered” in games with the children. Wright joined other parents who had complained to Smith’s superiors about his behavior.

Wright added that his child told him, “There was a game where they all chased Paul (Bailly). Paul, I guess, was ‘it’ all the time.”

After his firing from the Chatsworth Park School, Smith was warned that he could also lose his job at Darby if he did not change his attitude, said Kuhn, a retired elementary school principal. “He seemed to accept it and said he would do better.”

But Kuhn began receiving similar complaints from the new Darby school child-care director, Candy Bekins, in February. Kuhn fired Smith March 6 at a meeting where Smith became very angry, Kuhn said.

“I warned him about making threats to anybody and he said, ‘If I’m angry at anyone I would take it out on you,’ ” Kuhn said.

The next day, Smith showed up for work briefly and later cursed a PTA supervisor over the telephone, Kuhn said. As a result, Kuhn said, he warned school officials to watch out for Smith.

Wright said he saw Smith on school grounds several afternoons last week.

No one answered the front door Sunday at Smith’s Gazette Avenue home, where he lived with his mother and grandmother in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood of large, well-tended homes.

Similarly, no one responded at the Reseda Boulevard apartment where Paul lived with his mother, Mary Bailly.

After a meeting Sunday with PTA child-care supervisors, Kuhn said parents will be reminded that they must accompany their children to and from the doors of the child-care classrooms. He also defended the program’s security.

“I don’t see anything wrong with the procedures as long as they are followed,” Kuhn said.

Parents at Darby were issued notices earlier this year reminding them that they must accompany their children to the child-care room, PTA officials said. But some parents don’t follow the requirement because they are often pressed for time in the morning, officials said. PTA officials said Paul was not signed in Friday.

West Valley school board member Julie Korenstein said Sunday that she will be asking district officials to examine the procedures for background checks required of child-care workers using school district property.

Smith applied for the PTA job during the summer of 1988, using a letter of recommendation written by the Chatsworth High School instructor of the school’s “Careers with Children” course, Kuhn said. In the April 25, 1988, letter, Smith is described as “friendly, kind and firm with nursery school children,” based on his work at the high school’s child-care center, which is not affiliated with the PTA.

Smith had also received a commendation from the Los Angeles Unified School District for volunteer work with children at the Nevada Avenue School in Canoga Park while Smith was still attending high school, Kuhn said.

Smith’s application for work as a child-care teacher’s assistant was approved by the state Department of Social Services, which grants licenses to operate child-care facilities and conducts criminal record checks on prospective child-care workers, Kuhn said.

The 31st District PTA was recently named as one of 13 exemplary volunteer programs nationwide by the National Research Council for its child-care program, as well as for providing health and dental care to needy students.

The PTA’s 7-year-old Latchkey Project currently charges from $8 to $45 a week for its before- and after-school care, depending on the parents’ income. Classrooms are leased to the PTA by the city school district for a token fee.

The Darby school currently has 97 students enrolled in the child-care program, making it the largest child-care site operated by the PTA, officials said.

Times staff writer Psyche Pascual contributed to this story.