Principal’s Letter Warns of Possible Molester : Schools: Man seen near elementary campus matched description of person linked to suspicious incidents.

A Van Nuys school principal sent letters home to parents on Wednesday warning them to look out for a possible molester who might be approaching students near several campuses in Van Nuys and Sun Valley.

Gault Street Elementary School Principal John Kinnon said he received a telephone call from a woman Wednesday who said she saw a man sitting in a red Toyota watching students on the school playground. Kinnon said the woman, who was visiting a friend near the campus, said the man--and his car--matched police descriptions of the person who was linked to several suspicious incidents in the past several weeks.

“I wrote a letter to parents right away,” Kinnon said. “I want the children to tell us immediately if they see or hear anything suspicious.”

Los Angeles school police officers spent most of the day at Gault but the man left the area shortly after he got there, the principal said.

On Tuesday, Sun Valley Middle School Principal Emilio Garcia reported three incidents involving a red Toyota. In the first, a man approached a group of students and asked if they wanted a ride. In the second, a man in a similar vehicle stopped and told a male student that his father had told him to pick up the boy. A third incident occurred around 4 p.m. when a man walked up to three girls and exposed himself.

Los Angeles Police Detective Woodrow Parks said that so far investigators have not been able to identify a pattern in the incidents, but that an investigation is continuing. “We haven’t identified any serial molester in the Valley, but parents should still caution their kids,” Parks said.

On Monday, school officials reported that two girls were standing behind a fence near Sun Valley Middle School when a man driving a late-model red Toyota Corolla pulled up and asked the girls if they wanted a ride. A man driving a similar car approached a male student last week, calling the boy by name and asking him if he wanted a ride.

Los Angeles Unified School District administrators last week issued a memo warning parents, students and staff members in the West Valley that a man had reportedly exposed himself or tried to coax children into his car near five different schools over a six-week period.

On Tuesday, school district police went to the campuses--including Bertrand Avenue in Reseda, Emelita Street in Encino, Gault Street and Sun Valley and Van Nuys middle schools--to take reports on each of the incidents that will be reviewed for possible connections, authorities said.