Man Held in Threat to Girl, 6, at School

A 34-year-old man was arrested Thursday after he entered a Newport Beach elementary school bathroom and entered a stall with a 6-year-old girl, police said.

The girl was frightened but not physically harmed during the incident, which occurred just minutes before the morning bell rang, investigators said. The child was rescued by her grandmother, who briefly struggled with the man before he fled Mariners Elementary School on foot, police said.

When the woman entered the restroom to find out what was taking the little girl so long, she saw that the man had followed her granddaughter into a stall and was standing between her and the toilet, according to police.

The woman forced her way into the stall and struggled with the man, whom police did not identify. He fled, with a physical education teacher and a parent in pursuit. Police said they arrested him a short distance from the school about 10 minutes later.

The incident threw the campus into an uproar and prompted calls from parents for better security at the school, which abuts a public park.

“I think parents are very concerned,” said Patricia Nance, whose children attend the school. “I was talking to some moms in the park, and there’s a feeling that they wish there was more security. . . . There’s a concern that anyone could just wander in from the park onto our campus.”

Many parents had praise for the way the school handled the incident. Officials from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District dispatched a team of psychologists to the campus to counsel children who may have been upset, and they also sent a letter home to all parents telling them about the incident and informing them that, from now on, bathrooms will be monitored.