Parents Face Painful Choice on Day After

On the morning after the rampage in Granada Hills, many parents across Southern California swung between logic and panic, wrestling with the fear of leaving their children at camps and day-care centers.

Scores of families kept their children home from Jewish community centers in Orange County and elsewhere. Those who did take their sons and daughters to the facilities were relieved to find heightened security at many.

The angst also gripped families whose children are in secular day care.

“I think every parent today is worried,” said Kathleen Barker, hugging her daughter, Elena, as she dropped the 3-year-old off at day care in Pasadena.

Keeping their children home, many said, would mean giving in to terror. A shooting such as Tuesday’s just couldn’t happen again, they assured themselves. But as they left their children for the day, many parents struggled with the biting fear: What if it does?

One-fourth of the students enrolled at Temple Bat Yahm preschool in Newport Beach did not show up Wednesday. And the parents who did drop off their children were riddled with doubt--and grateful to find stepped-up security.

“I was very frightened to bring my son here today. I felt relief when I found out they would have security and the children would stay indoors,” said Elizabeth Price, 30, of Irvine. “I noticed there were a lot of kids absent, and I wondered if I made the right decision. All of this publicity makes it worse. You worry about copycat crimes.”

While officials with the Jewish Community Centers said they had no reports of significant numbers of children staying home, individual facilities reported low attendance.

At the North Valley Jewish Community Center, the scene of Tuesday’s violence, about 100 children--half of the usual turnout--showed up for the summer camp and day-care program, which was held in a nearby church. Staff and students met with counselors, and a community meeting was held in the evening.

Saying they were not going to cower in the face of violence, a handful of parents began arriving at the center at 7 a.m., four hours before it opened.

‘We’re Not Going to Let Anyone Scare Us’

Yuval Barazani said returning his child to camp would send a message to those who discriminate against Jews.

“We are part of the community, and we plan to be here,” he said. “We’re not going to let anyone scare us.”

Security measures were apparent at many schools, even as school directors tried to maintain a sense of normalcy for their young charges.

“You must continue living your life, and it’s important not to put the children in such fear that they lose all track of reality,” said Roslin Romain, director at B’Nai Tzedek preschool. “We’re always aware of security--being a synagogue--and we’re just letting parents know that we will be as safe and cautious as we can.”

Tuesday’s tragedy reminded some Orange County residents of an incident in May when a man drove his car through a Costa Mesa day-care playground, killing two children. The driver, who remains in jail, told police he crashed his car intentionally and was determined to hurt someone.

Teachers at that facility, Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center, said Wednesday they want to help those at the Granada Hills center.

Director Sheryl Hawkinson said her staff members have started gathering children’s drawings and teachers’ letters to send to the North Valley Jewish Community Center.

Once the staff there recovers from the initial shock, Hawkinson said, she wants to sit down with them--and cry with them.

“They need to know that as long as what they are doing is coming from their hearts, they will get through it,” she said.

Security was on the minds of teachers at another Costa Mesa facility, Lindburgh Child Development Center. After the May tragedy, “we did look into putting a barrier up, but that was such a freak incident, it wouldn’t happen here,” director Linda Sorensen said. “We just thought that the possibility of something like that happening here is so remote that it wouldn’t be worth it.”

Others wondered if feeling secure is possible anymore.

“We’re not safe anywhere--at home, school, church, on the street,” said Sobeyda Castillo as she dropped her child Wednesday morning at the Lindburgh center. “It’s all part of the world we live in now.” At Temple Beth David in Westminster, Rabbi Michael Mayersohn said all security procedures are under review. The temple’s preschool director also is meeting with colleagues to share information and ideas, he said.

That a school or church or temple might be a target is not a new concept, he said, nor can the anti-Semitism behind Tuesday’s violence be understood without a broader examination of racism and intolerance.

“I think it’s a constant battle for society to confront individuals and groups that hate, but I also think we’ve seen tremendous progress in the last generations and shouldn’t lose sight of that,” he said. “There are always going to be some bad people, but most people are good and tolerant and decent.”

Parents and children at other day camps voiced similar fears Wednesday morning, many unaware that the suspect in the case had already turned himself in to Las Vegas authorities.

At the Valley Cities Jewish Community Center in Sherman Oaks, extra security officers greeted parents as young children with Barbie backpacks, Pokemon games and Little Mermaid lunch boxes trooped in. Some comforted their parents as they said goodbye.

“Don’t worry,” a sandy-haired, 8-year-old boy said to his mother. “It showed what he looked like in the newspaper. He won’t get us.”

Shelly Koyshman, 28, a paralegal from Sherman Oaks, said she was terrified by the shooting but decided to take her 5-year-old daughter to day camp anyway.

“I was in tears all day,” she said. “When I heard the news, my first instinct was to get up and run and grab my daughter, take her home and never let her leave the house.”

Center Gets Many Calls From Worried Parents

Officials at the West Valley Jewish Community Center said they received many calls from worried parents who opted to keep their children out of the preschool and camp programs Wednesday. Attendance was down about 50%, according to Ronda P. Wilkin, the center’s director.

“All the way [here] I was shaking,” said Judi Rebenstein of Reseda as she dropped her son off at preschool. “I didn’t know if I was doing the right thing. Do I keep him home? How long do I keep him home?”

Some parents said the fear can become overwhelming.

“It makes you wonder whether you should even take your kids out of the house,” said Michelle Fiorellino, 33, as she dropped her 3-year-old daughter off at the Good Shepherd Preschool in Irvine.

“As a parent, you hope that you’re doing the right thing. Should you totally shelter your kids or just pray?”

Several Jewish community leaders, gathering at the Jewish Federation of Orange County campus in Costa Mesa, said education is the key.

Preschool Director Teri Ferentz said several of the 120 students at the federation preschool stayed home Wednesday. The school is trying to avoid the development of a siege mentality, she said.

It did, however, cancel “water day,” when 2- to 4-year-olds are permitted to play outside in the sprinklers, on the belief that parents would feel more comfortable if their children were kept indoors, Ferentz said.

Joyce Greenspan of the Anti-Defamation League of Orange County attended the meeting with an ADL booklet titled “The Explosion of Hate.” It outlines the rise in hate crimes and activities. Awareness of the hate groups is one step to combating them, Greenspan said, but it is not enough.

“We need to begin to educate children at a very young age and teach them to live with one another,” she said.

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Times staff writers Meg James and Eleanor Yang contributed to this report.