Anxiety Over Molestations Spurs Action

WINNETKA —  Anna Measles brought her two children to the Sutter Middle School PTSA meeting Thursday night because she didn’t want to leave her 11-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son home alone after dark.

And her reason for coming to the meeting, in which parents launched plans for a junior neighborhood watch program and geared up for a communitywide forum tonight, was just as simple: “I have a daughter,” Measles said.

“It helps me to protect my child,” she said. “Sometimes I like them to go because I think it’s good for them to be a little afraid so they’ll be cautious.” Throughout the Valley on Thursday, parents and school officials called emergency meetings, consulted self-defense experts and circulated a flurry of informational flyers designed to help protect children from a serial molester who has stalked and assaulted as many as 26 victims over the past 10 months.

Since police disclosed that an unidentified man is suspected in a string of crimes mostly against girls, ranging from lewd language to rape, parents and community leaders have struggled to make up for what many called lost time.

“This whole process should have been started, with us getting the parents and the community together, a lot sooner,” said Mary Mott, PTA president of Calvert Street Elementary School in Woodland Hills. “If the information had gotten to us sooner, we could have started this awareness process a lot sooner.”

Within hours of hearing news reports about the crimes, Parent Teacher Student Assn. leaders scrambled to organize a community meeting in which parents, PTSA leaders, police and politicians could share their concerns and questions.

That meeting, called “Street-Proof Our Kids,” is scheduled for tonight at 7 p.m. at John A. Sutter Middle School, 7330 Winnetka Ave.

“We just instantly decided there was a need for the community to get the facts on what happened, have an opportunity to talk to the LAPD, and to talk about what we could do to prevent this from happening or continuing,” said Harriet Sculley, the president of the 31st District of the PTSA.

“We want to prevent panic and let people know what actually happened.”

At parent-teacher meetings, officials this week noticed double the normal attendance. Police have been deluged with tips. And children have been inundated with safety reminders at assemblies and in classrooms, at home and while on their way home.

“We’ve made sure that the teachers were made aware of this and discussed it with children in the classroom,” said Frank Secchierla, principal at Capistrano Avenue Elementary School in West Hills. “We posted an article with the composite picture on all our gates. We also sent a letter home, giving hints about how to talk about this at home and where a child can run if threatened.”

The Guardian Angels also made an appearance in the Valley on Thursday, staking themselves out at the corner of De Soto Avenue and Devonshire Street, the northeastern-most corner of the area police say the suspect has targeted.

Groups of three and four Angels patrolled the streets. Several walked between cars stopped at traffic signals, handing out flyers with safety tips on one side and the suspect’s picture on the other.

The group’s director, Weston Conwell, said he expected as many as 25 Angels would patrol areas around central and west Valley schools in the morning and afternoon.

At Germain Elementary in Chatsworth, Sutter Middle School and Fullbright Avenue Elementary School in Canoga Park, and Lockhurst Drive and Calvert elementary schools in Woodland Hills, principals and parents have explored neighborhood watches, safe house systems and children’s crime prevention workshops.