Police Deluged With Tips in Molester Case : Crime: Valley authorities receive more than 100 reports involving sightings of the suspect in 22 attacks on children. Schools step up safety efforts.

Police were bombarded with more than 100 reports of sightings of a serial child molester Wednesday as teachers, administrators and jittery parents struggled to find ways to assure the safety of their children.

On Monday police disclosed that an unidentified molester had stalked and attacked 22 young victims since February in the San Fernando Valley.

“I’m sending out a letter to my parents today suggesting parents bring their children to school,” said Marilyn Erickson, principal of Haskell Elementary School in Granada Hills.

“Parents are saying they have seen someone who is doing something suspicious and because of that, I am alerting the teachers. People are reporting anything and everything, and rightly they should.”

In Reseda, Keith Lord, principal of Melvin Avenue Elementary School, said parents in his area have requested that the composite sketch be hung in classrooms so that children know what the suspect looks like.

At Sutter Junior High School in Canoga Park, Ellen Eckard, president of the Parent Teacher Student Assn., said her group is exploring ways to implement a junior neighborhood watch, in which children will be taught how to identify and report suspicious incidents.

Police were kept busy with a deluge of tips. Some residents reported suspicious-looking people hanging around the schools as they kept them in sight. Others called in to say that after seeing composite sketches of the suspect disseminated by the media, they were sure that they had seen the man in days and weeks past.

“It’s not like we’re just getting calls saying someone is here now,” said Capt. Valentino Paniccia, of the West Valley Division. “We’re also getting calls where people say, ‘This guy looks familiar, I think it’s so-and-so, I think it’s the guy down the street.’ ”

Detectives working on the case spent the day investigating the calls, visiting places where the suspect was allegedly seen and tracking down reported information by phone, police said. Detectives said residents phoned in “massive amounts” of tips.

“I even had a policeman last night saying, ‘I swear I’ve seen that guy hanging out around Reseda (Boulevard) and Sherman Way at the gas station after 6 p.m.,” Paniccia said. “It wasn’t the right man, but we checked it out.”

Said Detective Robert Peloquin, who is heading up the investigation for the West Valley: “We’re fingerprinting a bottle left on a bus because somebody saw somebody that looked like somebody.”

The assailant has attacked young victims from Canoga Park to North Hollywood on their way to school. The man accosts the youngsters, mostly between ages 7 and 17, asks them a question and then grabs the victims in the crotch, police said.

In the most serious incident, police say that on Nov. 4 the man raped a 9-year-old girl after dragging her into the laundry room of an apartment building. The child was on her way to Fullbright Avenue Elementary School in Canoga Park, authorities said.

One woman who has worked in the past to combat crime in her Van Nuys neighborhood personally took the composite sketches to neighbors and to homeless people who live on the streets near her home.

“I called police yesterday morning,” said Mary Lou Holt. “No doubt he’s been in my area a lot.”

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick on Wednesday proposed a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.

“Our quiet West Valley neighborhoods have quickly become products of fear and despair,” said Chick, whose district includes areas of the West Valley. “We must act swiftly to take whatever actions are necessary to get this criminal off our streets and bring him to justice.”

Schools also stepped up efforts to alert parents about the need for increased caution. Throughout the central and West Valley, principals talked to parents and instructed teachers to review safety techniques.

Eckard, the PTSA president at Sutter, said she believes that she saw the molester.

“I personally thought that I saw the man and called the Police Department,” Eckard said. “A detective called me later and said they did not find him, but when I saw him he was actually sitting in the bushes.”

School officials said the recent spate of crimes has provided an opportunity to review general precautions that all children should know.

“We’re just going over safety techniques and alerting the children that there is always this possibility that a stranger may try to talk to you whether it’s this particular person or anybody else,” said Sandra McGuern, principal of Cantara Street Elementary School.

“This one, obviously he is out there, and sighted in many places, so it’s just another time to remind children and parents of the safety precautions we have to take in today’s world.”

Staff writer Hugo Martin contributed to this story.