Parents Criticize School Officials Over Alleged Molestations

More than 80 outraged parents filed into the Camarillo Heights Elementary School auditorium Friday evening to complain that officials left them in the dark about a teenager’s suspected sexual assaults on two children from the school.

It was inexcusable, parents said, that they first learned of the alleged incidents from news accounts, rather than immediately through the principal.

“We had to read about what happened in the newspaper,” said John Snyder, characterizing an earlier letter sent out by the school as evasive. “If the letter had told us exactly what had happened, then we wouldn’t be here tonight. . . . This is ridiculous.”

In response to the parents’ complaints, school officials said they are taking steps to improve communication between the school and parents.

The first alleged incident occurred last April, when, according to police, a teenage girl posing as a classroom aide molested a 5-year-old girl behind a puppet theater in the kindergarten class and in a bathroom.

According to police, the suspect, then 14, enrolled at Camarillo Heights, but was asked to leave the same day when the principal determined she was too old for elementary school.

The day the teen was on campus, however, she observed sixth-grade students assisting in the kindergarten class. She returned the next day to the kindergarten class, police said, and molested the 5-year-old, placing her hand over the child’s mouth to muffle cries for help.

While on informal probation after that incident, police say, the teenager was arrested on suspicion of molesting a 9-year-old girl March 10 near the campus.

The teen had been introduced to the girl the day before by a third student, a sixth-grade girl who met the teen during her brief stay at the elementary school, police said.

Some parents said the second alleged incident could have been prevented if school officials had properly notified parents.

School officials did send a letter home a month after the first alleged incident describing it as “inappropriate touching.”

But parents said school officials should have clearly indicated that a sexual assault occurred and that the teenager lived near the school.

“We can’t protect our kids from something we don’t know about,” said Bob Vampola. “We don’t need the nitty-gritty details and we don’t need her name. But we need to know what to do . . . because this person is in the neighborhood.”

Parents said nor were they satisfied with the letter Principal David Hart sent home with children Monday in response to stories in The Times about the two cases.

In his letter, Hart acknowledged concerns expressed by parents, but insisted they have little to fear.

“While I cannot, due to confidentiality issues, go into details about these matters, let me reassure you that we have a very safe campus,” he wrote.

Hart, Pleasant Valley Elementary School District officials and representatives from the district attorney and sheriff’s offices still did not go into details at Friday’s meeting, citing confidentiality and a negligence lawsuit filed against the district by the parents of the first alleged victim.

School officials instead attempted to calm parents’ fears about the possibility of the teenager’s molesting other children from the school.

Assistant Supt. Stephen Hanke said district officials will ask the court to notify them before the teenager’s release.

“We will have advance notice of release of the suspect, we will ensure the suspect will not loiter around campus and we will make sure that staff can recognize the suspect,” Hanke said.

Parents demanded they also be notified when the suspect is released.

“There is not much we can do about what happened in the past,” said Mike Lade. “But the school district needs to petition the judge for disclosure in this case. That’s the school district’s job as guardians of our children.”

Other parents said they plan to circulate petitions to submit to the judge requesting that the teenager be placed in a California Youth Authority in Chino, where there is a rehabilitation program for sexual offenders.

“We need to get her off our streets,” said Peggy Lee.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Miles Weiss suggested that the parents submit the petition to his office.

“I’ll make sure it gets sent to the sentencing judge, but I have to tell you, there is no evidence that suggests you can rehabilitate a sexual offender,” Weiss said.

School officials also said there are several steps they will take to increase security at the campus. They will:

* Reconfigure the office area to facilitate monitoring people entering the campus.

* Discuss, at a March 31 district safety committee meeting, obtaining more funds for outside supervision before and after school.

* Review attendance procedures to alert parents when a child is not in class.

* Review parent notification procedures in the event of suspected incidents.

* Redirect staff next week to put additional monitors in the playground and parking lot.

The teenager is in custody at a Ventura County juvenile facility awaiting hearings on both incidents next month.