Capistrano Neighborhood on Alert for Child Molester : Sex crimes: Many parents escort children to Palisades Elementary School after warning letter from principal about ‘very dangerous’ man in area.

Families of children who attend Palisades Elementary School in Capistrano Beach began scanning their neighborhoods Thursday for a molester who assaulted one child last week and exposed himself to another.

School officials sent a letter home with students Wednesday describing the molester, his vehicle and advising parents that he is a threat.

The letter startled parents, who appeared in unusual numbers at the school Thursday to pick up and drop off their youngsters or meet them along school bus routes on the way home.

In the letter, Palisades Principal Joel Drew said authorities investigating these cases consider the man to be “very dangerous” and are requesting the public’s assistance in finding him or his car, particularly in obtaining the license plate number.

The vehicle was described as a dirty, blue, two-door car and the man as having a mustache, a small beard and dark hair, combed straight back. Officials said he is between 30 and 50.

The Sheriff’s Department said the man exposed himself to a 6-year-old Palisades student on Jan. 8 as she was walking home from a bus stop in the vicinity of Camino Las Ramblas and Via de Agua about 3 p.m. The girl told authorities she had seen the same man expose himself sometime before Christmas.

The same man is being sought for molesting a 6-year-old boy on Jan. 6 in San Juan Capistrano. The boy was playing in an alley when he was approached and asked for directions. After the man said he was a policeman, the boy got into his car and was driven to a remote spot where he was assaulted.

Mona Kelley, treasurer of the local PTA, said she had received several calls from nervous parents who were planning to keep their children off the streets after school. “They are very concerned,” she said.

Drew said the Sheriff’s Department advises that children walking home from school or bus stops should pair up with other children for safety.

Some mothers said they are doing much more.

Bernice Smith, the mother of two children at Palisades Elementary, said the “horrible letter” gave her bad dreams. “I have been driving and looking at cars all day,” she said.

Smith was among mothers in a long line of cars waiting just outside the school at dismissal time to pick up their children.

She had also made extra copies of the letter her children brought home to distribute “to friends and everybody in the community,” in hopes that will increase the chances of the man’s capture.

In addition, Smith said, she has stopped letting her children walk home from school when she is busy at the office, and also has told them not to ride their bicycles in the neighborhood and the park anymore.

“Now, no way,” she said, echoing the sentiments of numerous other parents, some of whom made special arrangements Wednesday to keep their children under adult supervision at all times. Another mother said she no longer lets her 9-year-old daughter stay home alone behind locked doors for half an hour while she picks up her sister from another school.

Transportation officials at the Capistrano Unified School District noted that more parents than usual met their children Thursday at bus stops along a route that passes through the Meredith Canyon community where the molester was last seen.

“The kids in my class said their parents are picking them up. They are not taking the bus like they usually do,” said 10-year-old Trisha Sutch.

Kelley, like other parents, said she was reinforcing lessons about being careful of strangers.