School Principals Suspected Early That Attacks Were Linked

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

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

The girls offered similar descriptions of their assailant, saying that he was black, bearded and had marks on his face. Jackson said she told a school police detective after the October incident that the two attacks 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 told The Times that they had conversations with school police officers weeks before the molester’s pattern was identified, noting a number of similar incidents near Valley schools.

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

According to the LAPD, at least 11 of the attacks linked to the same molester, which police Friday revised upward to 32 since February, were first reported to school police. Twenty-two incidents occurred before the LAPD recognized the serial molester pattern.

In response, school police officials 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 have been attacked, according to LAPD officials, 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 that there were no breakdowns in communication. Mitchell’s school police force includes 295 officers who are authorized to carry weapons. They are responsible for more than 720 schools and offices.

The first to hear of several attacks was Principal Anais Ruiz of Valerio Street Elementary School. Ruiz said she contacted school police on Aug. 30 after a man jumped from an apartment building entryway 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.

On Oct. 15, Principal Donald Watson of Kittridge Street Elementary School said he called school police after 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.”

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 crimes because “I really felt school police had a handle on it.”

Jackson said she is not certain whether the man police have described as the serial molester is the same man who attacked her students, noting that one victim failed to recognize a police composite of the suspect. Plagued by inconsistent descriptions, police have regularly revised the composite, and they now classify the Noble attack as the work of the serial molester.

Interviews with principals also suggest that there is no established procedure for reporting attacks on schoolchildren. While most principals have notified school police, their decisions on whether to notify the LAPD, students, parents, nearby schools and regional school district administrators have 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 school police, the LAPD, surrounding schools and regional administrators, as well as students, staff and parents.

In contrast, 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 LAUSD Supt. Sara A. Coughlin, who oversees the Valley’s elementary schools, said that while there is no set procedure, principals typically notify school police, her office and Los Angeles police if the incident is serious.

She said her office offers advice to school principals on who should be notified.

After some of the attacks, principals notified Coughlin’s office, but others said they did not. Coughlin said her office may have received reports of attacks from school principals in as many as five cases, but that no pattern was established.

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

Parents and school officials have attacked the LAPD’s handling of the case, claiming that earlier notice would have allowed them to better protect their children. Investigators have said they were attempting to catch the molester and only reluctantly disclosed the manhunt last month.