Parents Seek More Security After Slaying

More than 60 parents demanded Monday that school officials increase campus security at a Northridge elementary school from which an 8-year-old boy was apparently abducted by his killer.

Fearful parents and grieving children were given comfort by special crisis counselors dispatched by school administrators to Darby Avenue School, from which third-grader Paul Bailly disappeared after being dropped off at the day-care center by his mother Friday morning. The boy’s body was found later that day burned beyond recognition in a field south of Simi Valley.

School officials and administrators of the day-care program denied that security problems might have contributed to the tragedy.

Meanwhile, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said 20 detectives--including all members of its Major Crimes Bureau--were assigned to the case Monday in an effort to gather evidence to support murder charges against jailed suspect Gregory Scott Smith, 21, of Canoga Park. Smith must be formally charged and arraigned by this afternoon or set free, officials said.

The exact cause of Paul’s death remains unknown pending autopsy tests. He was last seen by his mother about 7 a.m. in front of the school, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Detective Bob Young.

“The boy made it to the gate, but whether he went in or not, we don’t know,” Young said.

Young said he distributed flyers to parents at the meeting showing photographs of Paul and the gray 1984 Honda sedan that Smith drives. “We’re trying to find anybody who saw anything.”

Many parents leaving the hourlong meeting at the Darby School library said they are worried about campus security and want school officials to make sure gates to the campus are kept locked while children are there.

“It is useless to talk about what happened,” said parent Deeptha Leelarthna. “The problem now is to figure out if there is a security problem so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Darby School Principal Sidney Yukelson said he will remind all school personnel to keep gates locked, but he said no additional security measures are needed at the school. Other parents said they are angry that officials of the day-care center, which is operated by the 31st District Parent Teacher Student Assn., did not tell them Smith had been fired in December from another PTA-run center at the Chatsworth Park School.

“If this suspect gets let go from another school for a disciplinary problem, why was Darby chosen to be the place for the guy to get a second chance?” asked Robert Marmor, whose daughter is enrolled at the school’s day-care center.

Harold Kuhn, executive director of the 31st District’s child-care program, said he did not believe Smith posed a threat to children when he was fired from the Chatsworth Park job site. The child-care director there had complained to Kuhn that Smith argued and would not follow orders.

Kuhn said Smith was counseled about his behavior after the firing--but while he was still at Darby--including allegations that he punished children more severely than necessary. Smith also was alleged to have ridiculed children in his care, PTA officials said.

But Kuhn said he began receiving similar reports about Smith’s work at Darby, so he fired Smith on March 6 and warned day-care workers to keep an eye out for him. Although at least one parent said he saw Smith on school grounds last week before Paul’s disappearance, school and officials said they were not notified by parents.

Kuhn said no changes will be made in the PTA’s nationally recognized day-care program, which operates centers at 17 schools in the San Fernando Valley. Parents whose children attend the center are required to sign in their child every day.

“The child goes from one responsible adult to another,” Kuhn said.

School district crisis counselor Ruth Young said many children in Paul’s class are fearful and angry about the boy’s death. During a counseling session Monday, Young said the children talked about their dead classmate, describing him as a happy boy who could make others laugh.

Former counselors and teachers of Smith at Chatsworth High School said Monday they cannot believe the former special-education student would have committed such a crime. Smith, a 1988 graduate of the school, was described by school officials as personable with adults but a loner among his peers.

“Greg had difficulty relating to people his own age,” said Bonnie Greenberg, a school counselor and one of Smith’s former special-education teachers. “He just didn’t have a lot of friends.”

Students are placed in special-education classes when they are identified as having learning disabilities or emotional problems, school officials said.

Smith completed a yearlong vocational education course in child care at Chatsworth and later worked as a volunteer in a Canoga Park elementary school before being hired in September, 1988, to work mornings at the Darby school in the PTA’s latchkey child-care program.

Authorities declined to say what evidence they have tying Smith to the crime. A car matching his gray Honda sedan was seen by a witness in the vicinity where the fire was reported and the boy’s body found Friday.

Aside from Smith’s history at Darby and the sighting of a car matching his at the fire area, investigators said they have other undisclosed physical evidence linking him to the slaying.

“We have collected evidence through the execution of search warrants,” Hughes said.

The search warrants were for Smith’s home and car, authorities said.

Smith’s arraignment is set for 1:30 p.m. in Ventura Municipal Court.

Times staff writer Psyche Pascual contributed to this story.