Molestations Spur Start of Safe House Program : Crime: West Valley officers begin effort to transform private homes into children’s sanctuaries marked with green triangles.

Following more than two dozen attacks by a serial child molester, police have launched a program to convert private homes in the western San Fernando Valley into sanctuaries, marked by a green triangle, where children can flee for refuge in an emergency.

It is hoped that the Safe House program, which officers began implementing Thursday at Winnetka Elementary School, will be in effect by June at all 32 elementary schools in the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division, in cooperation with parents and school administrators, police said Thursday.

Modeled after a program begun at Erwin Street Elementary School in Van Nuys in November, 1992, it identifies prescreened safe houses or apartments with a six-inch florescent green triangle in the window and a smaller one painted on the curb next to the address.

“When a child is on any street, there should be a place that child can run,” said Stephanie Tisdale, a senior lead officer who is organizing the program.

“There should be a safe place on every street.”

The safe houses will be chosen by police, who will check volunteers for criminal records and require two recommendations, preferably by neighbors, Tisdale said.

Volunteers must agree to remain at home from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. when children walk to and from school. In addition, the triangles will be numbered through a complex system under which officers will be able to spot unauthorized triangles that might be placed to lure children.

The Erwin Street Elementary School program, which West Valley police describe as the model for their own, was established by police and parents in the neighborhoods around the school after two girls were followed home from school by men who tried to lure them into a car.

There are 25 designated safe houses in the neighborhoods around Erwin Street School, and even though none has ever been used, organizers believe their existence is an asset to the neighborhood.

“I think that by increasing community awareness, we are actually improving our neighborhood,” said Van Nuys Safe House coordinator Sari Pill-Kahan. “When people pay more attention to what is going on, there is a tendency to pick up garbage and paint out graffiti. We are getting people to care about their neighborhoods again.”

Tisdale said that is precisely the goal of West Valley police.

“Our whole purpose is to get back to a community kind of living,” Tisdale said. “This is just another step in that direction.”

The nearly two dozen parents who showed up for the Safe House meeting at Winnetka Elementary School Thursday evening greeted the idea with a mixture of enthusiasm and resignation.

“It’s really sad that we have to do something like this,” said Lorraine Ronzio, who has a son attending first grade at the school. “But between the gangs, violence, molesters and kidnapings, we have to do something.”

Jane Gonzales, who attended Winnetka Elementary School as a child, now has two daughters who go there. She said she would never allow them to walk to school alone as she did when she was a little girl.

“It used to be you could let kids play outside until dinner time,” Gonzales said. “Now I won’t even let them walk around the corner.” After hearing Tisdale describe the program, Gonzales said she would definitely turn her home into a safe house.

“I think it’s a great idea,” she said. “Especially since they really check out the people.”

The police program was developed as administrators, teachers and parents throughout the Valley look for ways to increase safety around their campuses after a series of attacks by a molester in the fall. A handful of schools have already implemented various safety programs and many others are meeting to devise plans that will fit their communities.

Maria Villasenor, principal of Winnetka Elementary School, called the Safe House program “terrific . . . anything we can do to make kids feel safer is a good thing.”