San Diego police are looking for a man who was reportedly touching himself inappropriately near schools on Tuesday in the Carmel Valley area.
Police received a call just before 4 p.m. Tuesday from a mother who called to report her daughter and friends were victims of an indecent exposure while walking to Carmel Valley Middle School.
The kids, all 12 years old, reported seeing a man in a parked car on the 12800 block of Carmel Creek Road. They said the man was sitting in his car with his pants down and appeared to be touching himself inappropriately, SDPD Lt. Shawn Takeuchi confirmed.
The man was sitting on the passenger side of the parked car with the car door wide open, said principle of Carmel Valley Middle, Vicki Kim, in a letter sent to students Tuesday.
Police do not have a description of the man or his car. It is also unclear how close the children got to the suspect’s car, SDPD said.
“This is not the only school in the neighborhood and these types of things shouldn’t be around children, period,” said Robert A. Haley, ED.D., Superintendent of the San Dieguito Union High School District.
SDPD and the mother contacted the school Tuesday letting them know about the incident. The principle sent the following letter to students and their families:
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“Carmel Valley Middle School Administration received information today about a man in the passenger side of a parked car on Carmel Creek Road, exposed and touching himself inappropriately with the car door wide open. Some CVMS students witnessed this as they were walking to school yesterday morning. The incident was reported to San Diego Police Department and it is currently under investigation.
At this time, the description of the vehicle and individual has varied quite a bit; please be alert and report anything suspicious, particularly if a solo male individual is seated in the passenger side of the vehicle with the door open. Reports should be immediately made to San Diego Police Department.
A special thank you to our students and parents for reporting this incident and working with SDPD on this investigation to keep our school and students safe by implementing our district-wide practice of ‘See Something, Hear Something, Say Something.’ Please remind your students about the importance of immediately communicating situations that feel unsafe.”
This is not the first indecent exposure reported in the Carmel Valley area, just last year a man pleaded guilty after exposing himself in front of a mother jogging with her 2-year-old.
Haley said he hopes parents take this as a learning lesson for their children.
“We would want to encourage parents to have a conversations with their children about safety to and from school in terms of strangers and situations where they feel unsafe,” said Haley.
SDPD is investigating the incident.
