Teenager Arrested After Attacks on 2 Female Teachers

A 15-year-old student has been arrested in after-school attacks on two teachers in their Antelope Valley High School classrooms, authorities said Monday.

The first incident occurred March 24, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Greg McHenry, after the unidentified 6-foot, 175-pound youth entered a classroom, asked to use the telephone and then attacked the teacher.

“He was pretty methodical,” McHenry said. “He engaged in small talk before he grabbed her physically from behind, fondled her and attempted to strangle and suffocate her. She was able to talk him away.”

The teacher did not report the attack because she feared the news media would imply that she had a sexual relationship with the student, McHenry said. The boy told her he was sexually attracted to her, she told investigators.

Using a similar ruse three days later, the teenager allegedly attacked the second teacher, hitting her on the head with a book, sitting over her and choking her after she fell, said Sheriff’s Lt. Terry Lewis.

“No one [else] was in the classroom when he went in to ask if he could use the phone to call his mother,” Lewis said. After the teacher screamed, “A janitor heard the ruckus and intervened,” Lewis added.

A civilian security officer detained the boy while waiting for an on-campus sheriff’s deputy to arrest him. He has been held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall since his March 27 arrest, but no charges have been filed. Authorities expect to file attempted murder and attempted sexual assault charges this week, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Daniel Belland.

The first victim “was pretty upset it happened to someone else, and [she] felt if she had done something on that Friday, it could have prevented the [second] incident,” McHenry said. “Actually, by her not reporting it on that day, we were able to nail him for something more serious and demonstrate he has deep-seated psychological problems.”

The teachers, both in their 50s, have bungalow classrooms away from the administration building and the security office.

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Investigators said after the second attack, other teachers came forward and said the boy had also lingered around their rooms after school and asked to use the phone.

“In my estimation,” McHenry said, “he was casing the rooms like a burglar cases a house before a burglary.”

Antelope Valley Union School District officials were on spring break and could not be reached for comment Monday. Classes resume April 10.

McHenry said teachers have been advised to lock their doors after school and look out for students who consistently try to isolate them.

“This young man used the same ruse, it seems, in every case,” McHenry said. “He put people at ease to some extent. This is exactly what [serial attackers] are good at--disarming people into thinking they are just average people.”

The student, according to the sheriff’s office, has no criminal background and was not known as a troublemaker.