Striking Back at a Predator : Sex criminal targets children walking to school in San Fernando Valley

Shouldn’t every child living near his or her school be able to walk there without incident? Shouldn’t parents be free of worry about their children arriving safely at school? What once was taken for granted is now a matter of great concern. A two-legged predator is afoot in the San Fernando Valley: 22 sexual assaults have been committed, mainly against elementary school children.

The molester has struck in an area that includes parts of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley, Devonshire and Van Nuys divisions. His attacks are believed to have begun in February; the last occurred last week.

A news article about the assailant’s methods and the fears that his attacks have generated among parents can be found in today’s Times. The matter that concerns us here is what can be done to safeguard the people he commonly targets, youngsters walking to school.

In cases like these, schools must take extra steps to ensure that their charges arrive safely. This means making certain that each school staff member has the most recent information police can provide and that each knows fully what to look for.

Parents should escort their children to school or arrange for other parents to do so. Helping organize such protection isn’t exactly what PTAs were created for, but it comes awfully close. These are times in which parents ought to be especially grateful if their school has an active parent-teacher organization that can disseminate information and coordinate efforts to shield children.

Boys as well as girls need to be escorted. Some of the attacks linked to this suspect have involved boys.

Making sure that your child has a friend or two to walk to school with may be insufficient in this instance; the perpetrator has approached pairs of children as well as children alone.

Everyone from school staff members to parents must make time, once more, to warn youngsters about strangers. This criminal has chosen the most helpless and gullible of victims. The eyes and efforts of many adults are needed to keep him at bay.