Girl, 11, Assaulted While Walking to School Bus Stop

An 11-year-old girl, walking alone to her school bus stop, was sexually assaulted early Thursday by a man who held a sharp object to her throat and forced her behind an apartment complex, police said.

It was unclear whether the attacker was the long-sought “Valley Molester” blamed for dozens of other assaults on schoolchildren dating back to 1993, mostly in the west San Fernando Valley, police said. The assailant loosely matched the Valley Molester’s description, but there have been no other assaults that have fit his pattern recently, detectives said.

The Valley Molester was blamed for attacks on 32 children in 1993. Four more attacks occurred late last year, but police are unsure they are connected to the same man.

Thursday’s attacker was described as an African American man, between 30 and 40, at least 6 feet, 2 inches tall, with a mustache, wearing a pink shirt and turquoise trousers.

He approached the girl at about 6:20 a.m. and made her walk with him behind an apartment complex at 15000 Parthenia St., where she was assaulted, said Lt. Bob Normandy of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division.

The girl then ran to Noble Elementary School at 8329 Noble Ave., where she regularly waits for a bus to take her to another school. She recounted the attack to one of the school supervisors, who called police.

Detectives interviewed the girl and released her to her parents.

Teachers at Noble reiterated to their students that they should avoid coming to school alone, Principal Ruth Jackson said. “We are constantly telling our parents to keep their children in pairs--they should never, ever walk alone,” Jackson said. “It’s just critical.”

The school district sent a notice to surrounding schools alerting them to the attack, and a letter will probably be distributed to parents, Jackson said.