A worker at Creative Frontiers School claimed today she was aware of at least two instances of possible abuse in the last year at the private Citrus Heights school, including one that she says she witnessed herself involving Principal Robert B. Adams.
Irma Mertens, a 62-year-old receptionist at the school until she quit in May, said in an interview with The Bee at her home that she surprised Adams when she walked into the school's administrative office last summer and found him tending to a 7- or 8-year-old girl in a swim suit.
Mertens claims Adams did not hear her enter the office and that she saw the principal rubbing the girl and touching her in a physically and sexually inappropriate manner. Mertens said she reported the incident the next day to school administrator Cynthia Higgins but that Higgins never passed the report on to state officials or police.
Mertens' allegations first surfaced Monday in the state Department of Social Services' formal accusation against Adams. Mertens' allegations come one day after the state and Citrus Heights police shut the school down and announced they were investigating "multiple allegations of child molestation."
Police said Adams is "the focus of the investigation," but no charges have been filed. Adams did not respond to calls Monday or today, but his attorney has called the allegations "absolutely untrue."
Higgins refused to comment when visited at her Citrus Heights home this afternoon. "I do not want to talk about anything involving her at all," Higgins said.
Mertens, who is named as a witness in a complaint against the school by the state Department of Social Services, said she did not confront Adams at the time but told Higgins because, as administrator, it was her job to immediately report the incident. The state's license revocation complaint against the school indicates that Higgins did not report the allegation, and Mertens said Higgins brushed the incident aside.
Mertens said she continued to work at the facility until May, when she heard of another instance involving Adams. This time, she said in a nearly hour-long interview, she heard from a teacher that a 3-year-old student had been pulled from the school by parents after the child claimed "Mr. Bob touched my pee-pee."
"Mr. Bob" is the nickname students and parents gave Adams, who has been described by some parents as enormously popular at the school.
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