School Police Failed to Detect Serial Molester : Crime: Some attacks were reported to district force, but links between assaults weren’t discovered until weeks later.

When one of her 9-year-old students reported that she had been attacked Oct. 19 on the way to a North Hills school, Principal Ruth Jackson remembered.

Jackson, the principal of Noble Avenue Elementary, recalled that about two months earlier, on Aug. 12, another of her students, also a young girl, had been attacked on her way to school.

Both girls gave similar descriptions of their assailants, noting that they had been accosted by a man they described as black, bearded and having marks on his face. Jackson said she told a school police detective after the October incident that the two might be related.

“I absolutely thought they may be connected,” Jackson said in a recent interview. “I told school police . . . they drew the same conclusions.”

Jackson and two other principals said they had conversations with school police officers weeks before the molester’s pattern was identified, pointing out multiple or similar incidents near San Fernando Valley schools.

Chief Wesley Mitchell of the Los Angeles Unified School District police has stated that his department was unaware that a serial molester was stalking Valley schoolchildren until mid-November, when the LAPD disclosed its manhunt.

According to the LAPD, at least 11 of the attacks linked to the serial molester, which police Friday revised to 32 since February, were first reported to school police. Of the 22 incidents that occurred before the LAPD recognized the pattern of a molester, half were reported to school police.

In response, school police executives said they took only seven of the reports. But interviews with school principals show that in nine of the attacks, principals made the initial reports directly to school police.

In a survey of 10 principals whose students, according to LAPD officials, have been attacked, two other principals said they were unaware their students had been victims.

Mitchell said earlier this week that an investigation by one of his officers concluded that his department was not negligent in its handling of the case, and found no breakdowns in communication on the part of his officers. Mitchell’s force includes 295 officers who are authorized to carry weapons. They are responsible for more than 720 schools and offices.

Principal Donald Watson of Kittridge Street Elementary School said he called school police on the morning of Oct. 15, when a man grabbed the crotch of a 10-year-old girl on her way to morning classes.

“(School police officers) reported to us that it sounded like a similar description of a suspect they had received other reports on,” Watson said. “I assumed by the comment of the school police officer that it probably was . . . part of a larger series of attacks.”

At Valerio Street Elementary School, Principal Anais Ruiz said she also contacted school police Aug. 30 after a man jumped out from an entry of an apartment building and grabbed the crotch of one of her students on her way to school.

Ruiz said she did not notify surrounding schools after the incident because “school police mentioned that another incident had happened at another school.”

“I knew they were aware of different things happening,” Ruiz said.

Jackson, at Noble school, said that after the October attack on one of her students, a lone school police detective appeared to be cruising the area more frequently. Jackson said she did not notify LAPD officers about the possible connection because “I really felt school police had a handle on it.”

Principals said that there is no established procedure for reporting attacks on schoolchildren. Although most principals notified school police, their decisions on whether to notify the LAPD, students, parents, nearby schools and regional school district administrators varied from school to school.

For example, after a 9-year-old Fullbright Avenue Elementary School student was raped Nov. 3 on her way to class, Principal James Grover said that, given the magnitude of the incident, he notified the school police, the LAPD, surrounding schools and regional administrators, as well as students, staff and parents.

By comparison, after a Reseda Elementary School student was attacked on the way to school, Principal Janie Taylor notified school police and the child’s parents, and directed her staff to review safety precautions with students.

Assistant Supt. Sara A. Coughlin, who oversees the Valley’s elementary schools, said that although there is no set procedure, principals typically notify school police, her office and the LAPD if the incident is serious. She said her office offers instructions to school principals on who should be notified.

“It’s a judgment call,” Coughlin said of the discrepancy in procedure. Coughlin said so far there are no plans to establish a set procedure for all principals to follow.

Mitchell declined to comment on his department’s handling of the cases and referred questions to Deputy Chief Gwen Perez, the officer in charge of the department’s probe. Repeated calls to Perez this week were not returned.