Disturbing Incidents in San Mateo

An incident a week ago at Parkside Elementary School in San Mateo illustrates the dangers of taking the security of a school for granted.

Repeated incidents over a six-month period were apparently not enough to alert schools to ramp up their security, and a 9-year old girl was allegedly abducted and molested by Bradley Mrozek's latest trespass into a school.

Below are a couple more articles on the various incidents.

San Mateo, CA
New security measures are being put in place at Parkside Elementary School in San Mateo just days after a 25-year-old man wandered onto campus and abducted a nine-year-old student.

School officials did not return a call for comment Wednesday afternoon, but Parkside Principal Lori Fukumoto said in a statement on the school's website that staff was working to implement changes to current safety practices "that will improve security for all students."

Effective immediately, all gates to the Parkside campus will be locked during the day, and all visitors must register in the main office and wear a visitor badge while on campus, officials said.

The changes in security protocol were prompted by a series of alleged offenses by Bradley Mrazek of San Francisco, who allegedly trespassed on three different school campuses on Friday, ending with the alleged abduction at Parkside Elementary School.

San Mateo, CA
The man facing kidnapping and molestation charges after allegedly snatching a 9-year-old girl from a San Mateo school campus has been linked to an unsolved incident at a Daly City elementary school in which four girls say a man tried photographing them from underneath bathroom stalls.

In March, six months before 25-year-old Bradley Mrozek was arrested for allegedly grabbing a Parkview Elementary School student inside the girls’ bathroom, authorities believe he holed up inside a stall at George Washington Elementary School in Daly City and tried photographing young girls as they used the facilities. On March 16, the girls reported seeing a flash and fetched a teacher who tried forcing the man from the stall. He finally ran from the bathroom and fled. The case remained unsolved until the school principal read of Mrozek’s arrest in several bizarre on-campus incidents and told police they might want to investigate the earlier case, too.

The teacher picked Mrozek out of a photo lineup and a second witness also supports the identification, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Schools should have written procedures for signing visitors in, and for how to respond should an intruder be detected.  They should exercised regularly.  Schools are responsible for the safety and security of their students.  While not knowing all of the details of numerous incidents, it is clear that Mrozek trespassed onto several school campuses, and wasn't arrested until after molesting a young girl who thought she could safely go to the restroom.

What are your school's sign-in procedures, and how is their supervision?  That's a question worth asking your child's school.

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