Updated at 12:51 p.m., Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Parents issued warning after girl attacked

Advertiser Staff

Police released this sketch of the suspect in the Kauluwela Elementary attack.

A school custodian who heard the screams of a teen-age girl on the campus of Kauluwela Elementary School rushed to the scene yesterday and frightened off the girl's attacker.

The girl, 13, was walking through the campus en route to her own school, at about 6:35 a.m. yesterday. She was grabbed by a man and pulled into the hallway of a building housing first- and fifth-grade classrooms, a school spokesperson said.

The custodian heard her screaming and ran to the scene, and the suspect fled in a black Ford Ranger pickup truck that was parked at the Kauluwela Place back entrance.

The girl continued on to school, said Kauluwela principal Gwen Lee; police have declined to say which one she girl attends. She later was taken to Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children, where she was treated and released.

Lee added that a school bulletin will warn parents and students to avoid the campus in the early hours. The school is ringed with apartment buildings, and strangers often cut through the campus, Lee said.