Teacher Accused of Having Sex With Students : Education: Jeffrey Herbert Raker, a Hazeltine Avenue School instructor, is accused of assaulting four boys.

A 47-year-old elementary school teacher pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges he sexually assaulted four boys he had taught at school and coached after classes, Los Angeles police said.

Jeffrey Herbert Raker--a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Hazeltine Avenue School until a week ago--entered his plea in Van Nuys Municipal Court. He is charged with one count of continuous sexual abuse, two counts of oral copulation with one victim, and three counts of child molestation involving three other victims.

So far, the ongoing police investigation has yielded five victims, and authorities say they expect more.

“I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg,” said LAPD Detective Raul Galindo. “There’s the potential for many victims because of all the children he had contact with.”

The alleged molestations started after Raker, a Studio City resident, began teaching at Hazeltine in February, 1992. His alleged victims were Latino boys, ages 8 to 14, LAPD Officer Rosibel Serrufino said.

“The incidents occurred both at the school, at the suspect’s residence and on outings,” Serrufino said. “He would take the kids out on camping trips.”

The case began to unfold last Tuesday when one of the boys told a playground supervisor that Raker had touched him, said Pat Abney, the Hazeltine principal.

“It was something I didn’t even want to think about because he was so well-liked,” Abney said. “He was a devout, religious person who had been a missionary down in Guatemala.”

Abney said Raker appeared “confused and puzzled” when he was told a week ago that he was to report to an administrative job instead of his classroom the following morning. On Friday, officers from LAPD’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit searched his Studio City home and then arrested him.

Police found three more victims during interviews with other students Raker taught in his fifth- and sixth-grade classes or had coached on baseball and soccer teams, Serrufino said. One of the boys said he had been abused by Raker over a six-month period, police said.

On Tuesday, a 14-year-old boy told police that he had also been assaulted by Raker, Serrufino said. The boy, a former student at Hazeltine who had played on a baseball team Raker coached, is the fifth alleged victim found so far in the case.

Brian Dorian Giles, 26, a playground supervisor, said that last year Raker had coached about 50 children in an after-school baseball league.

“He seemed like a teacher who really cared,” Giles said. “When all the other teachers were leaving school, he stayed and did the after-school program with the kids.”

Galindo said evidence gathered so far shows that Raker displayed behavior typical of pedophiles, who prey on victims after first winning their trust.

“Your typical pedophile will seduce children,” Galindo said. “He befriends them . . . gives them things and opportunities they would not have at home and little by little he breaks down their resistance and does what he wants.”

Raker, who speaks Spanish, apparently had worked as a missionary and a teacher in Guatemala for 15 years before starting work in the Los Angeles Unified School District, law enforcement authorities and school officials said. He is currently on unpaid leave.

Raker remains in custody on $500,000 bail. His attorney, Deputy Public Defender Jerry Schultz, had sought to reduce Raker’s bail to $100,000 but Van Nuys Municipal Judge Leland B. Harris denied the request, saying “the charges are extremely serious in nature” and that Raker posed a flight risk.

Raker’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 23. Raker faces a maximum 56 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.

News of Raker’s arrest shocked parents and upset students Tuesday who learned of the incident after television news crews arrived at the school.

“There’s a real problem because nobody here says anything . . . to us parents,” said Rose Castro, whose two daughters attend Hazeltine. “If something happened (school officials) should report to us immediately so that we can take care of our kids.”

Times staff writer Lucille Renwick contributed to this story.