Sex offender arrested after man enters girl’s restroom at California school, tries to sexually assault student

A 32-year-old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of attempting to sexually assault a student at McAuliffe Elementary School in Riverside, authorities said.

Riverside Police named Logan Nighswonger as the suspect who police said was seen by a supervisor at the campus in the 4100 block of Golden Avenue jumping the elementary school’s fence, entering the girl’s restroom and fleeing by car around noon Friday. The campus supervisor, who allegedly heard a girl crying inside the restroom, reported the incident and detailed description of the suspect’s vehicle to police.

Authorities subsequently apprehended Nighswonger in Placentia around 4:30 p.m., according to jail records.

Nighswonger, who was being held without bail Saturday, was booked at Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of entering school grounds as a registered sex offender and attempted sex acts with a child under the age of 10, both felonies.

Nighswonger maintains a residence in Riverside, according to the California Megan’s Law database, a public sex offender registry. He was previously arrested by Riverside Police in 2015 on suspicion of indecent exposure and annoying or molesting a child under 18 years of age at Mark Twain Elementary, according to a 2015 Riverside PD Facebook post. According to his sex offender profile, in 2016 Nighswonger was convicted on charges of annoying/molesting a child under 18 years old.

“We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for their swift action in apprehending and removing this threat to our society,” Alvord Unified School District Superintendent Allan Mucerino said in a statement. “Children should never experience a situation such as this and it deeply saddens me that this incident occurred.

“It gives us pause and reinforces our commitment to school safety in recognition that even when we follow safety best practices and do everything in our power to secure our campuses there continues to be threats, which we will continue to work tirelessly to mitigate,” the statement said.

McAuliffe Elementary will increase security patrols, focusing on key areas on campus, Principal Gerardo Aguilar said.

“Additionally, we will institute a student buddy system to ensure students move about campus in pairs,” Aguilar said. “We will continue to work with our school resource officer to provide support to the campus.”

A crisis counseling team will be on campus Monday to support students. The school will also have a safety assembly and a district-wide campus threat assessment analysis will be undertaken, Aguilar said.

Jail records indicate that a court appearance for Nighswonger is set for Tuesday at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

Authorities urged anyone with information regarding the incident to contact Detective Stacie Ontko at (951) 353-7121.