Boy escapes man in eighth incident in three months
Christopher Quirk – Staff Writer
cq****@************ch.com
GILROY
Law enforcement agencies are investigating leads after a man groped a first-grader at Rucker Elementary School in the eighth suspicious incident involving men approaching or following youth in the city in the past three months.
About 8:20 a.m. Nov. 8, the boy went out of his class to get something from his backpack when he was approached by a thin Spanish-speaking man and asked if he could read Spanish, according to sheriff’s deputies. The man then ran the back of his right hand down the boy’s back in a slow and deliberate manner. The boy ran inside and told his teacher what had happened.
“The kid did exactly what he was supposed to do,” Rucker Principal Barbara Keesaw said.
The teacher then looked out the window to see the man take off in a teal-colored four-door sedan. Witnesses described the man as about 30 years old, 5-foot, 7-inches tall and 165 pounds, with medium-dark skin, brown eyes, short black hair and a moustache.
The man entered campus – which is not monitored by a security system but does have multiple security guards – at an unfenced area near the portable classrooms where the incident happened, Keesaw said. The district is considering making access to the school harder for non-authorized visitors, Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Deborah Flores said.
“With all of these incidents that are occurring in the city, it’s caused all of our principals and I to look at how we can secure the campuses,” she said.
The school closed several gates that had been open prior to the incident and the district plans to fence off areas on Santa Clara and Fourth streets, Keesaw said.
“Once that happens, I’m going to feel very safe about entry points on campus,” Flores said.
Students and staff were told of the events before 10 a.m. recess, so that they would be aware of any dangers when they went outside, Keesaw said. They were also told to follow the school policy of being in pairs when leaving a classroom.
“It was more a reminder of kids doing what we ask them to do on a daily basis,” she said.
In addition, within hours of the incident, all district parents received an automatic call giving details of the groping and informing parents on safe practices for their children, Flores said.
Meanwhile, deputies have been conducting vehicle stops on teal cars, but have not located a suspect as of Wednesday afternoon. The man is wanted on suspicion of annoying or molesting a child, battery on school grounds, and trespassing on school grounds.
The groping is one of eight suspicious incidents involving older men – usually in white vehicles – approaching or following youth in three months. Friday, police arrested a man for attempted kidnapping who might be responsible for another stalking incident. While he was in custody, a man in a white van approached an 11-year-old and tried to get her into his vehicle.
Deputies believe that Thursday’s groping was isolated, given the difference in suspect and vehicle descriptions.
Deputies informed the Gilroy Police Department of the incident, but the department’s public information officer was not available for comment Wednesday.
