Man Exposes Himself Near School : Crime: A Broadous Elementary official says publicity over recent rapes of two students may be a factor. But police downplay the theory.

With a suspected child rapist behind bars less than a week, students and administrators at Hillary T. Broadous Elementary School felt violated again after a man exposed himself to two third-grade girls who were on the school playground during recess.

Los Angeles police said the man, believed to be in his 20s or 30s, exposed himself Tuesday morning to the two 8-year-olds from a run-down gray pickup truck parked on Cometa Avenue next to the school.

Kathy O’Driscoll, the assistant principal at Broadous, said she was concerned that the recent media attention surrounding the rapes of two Broadous students might have caused the man to target the school, a theory downplayed by police.

On Aug. 30, an 11-year-old boy was kidnaped as he walked to Broadous and raped in a vacant apartment in the 12600 block of Van Nuys Boulevard. On Sept. 22, an 11-year-old girl was kidnaped, raped and robbed at the same apartment. Robert Lee Donaldson was charged Monday with those two rapes and two others. Bail was set at $2 million.

“It was in the newspapers and on TV,” O’Driscoll said. “Who knows the way sick people think?”

But Detective Diane Webb of the Foothill Division’s juvenile unit, which investigates crimes against children, said reports of indecent exposure are filed about twice a week at the division, most commonly near schools.

“As far as a trend, there’s no trend. It’s just pervasive,” Webb said. “It’s just your normal sickos out there.”

In the second such incident in the area this week, a naked man stood on a porch near the 11000 block of Herrick Avenue on Wednesday morning, police said, exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl on her way to another Pacoima elementary school.

Webb added that the majority of people who expose themselves to children don’t usually commit more serious sex crimes, such as rape.

“Like people who make obscene phone calls and don’t go any further, flashers just flash,” she said.

Administrators at Broadous said they want to put the incidents behind them, but vowed to keep talking to students about safety.

“We are trying to build the pride in the community and we want our children to feel secure,” O’Driscoll said. “But we will continue to tell them to be wary of strangers and to run and tell if someone bothers them.”