A tony Brooklyn Heights private preschool has become the target of a deranged stalker who shrieks in the hallways and hides in the bathrooms, The Post has learned.
Alex Kovner, 43, has been arrested twice this month for barging into the $24,000-a-year Imagine Early Learning Center and frightening kids and staff, according to school sources.
The incidents so unnerved school brass that they set up a panic button connected to their local precinct station house in case of trouble, a source said.
Kovner — who believes he is a prophet of God — was released from custody after a Brooklyn court appearance Tuesday. A court source said prosecutors can’t keep him locked up because he’s been hit with minor raps. Twice, a judge released him without bail.
“People are freaked out,” said one shaken mother. “Knowing he is out there and obviously has some sort of obsession with the school is very scary.”
Many moms and dads were so fearful, they kept their kids home Wednesday.
They are especially concerned because Kovner, during one of his invasions, screamed that the children don’t belong in the school, according to a source.
He first breached the school — which shares space with St. Ann’s School — on May 13 and screamed profanities, cops said.
Kovner even made specific mention of the Friday the 13th date to a staffer, according to a source. “He walked through the day care yelling obscenities and acting belligerent, causing the day care to be locked down,” according to a police report.
Several school sources said he came dangerously close to kids and that one staffer locked him in a gym area and called police.
Cops arrested Kovner and charged him with “acting in a manner injurious to a child” before he was released. But the stalker headed straight back to the building the next day and locked himself in a bathroom.
Kovner was again arrested and charged with criminal trespassing. This time, he was held in jail for a week pending a psychiatric exam and was eventually released after Tuesday’s court appearance.
School officials broke the jarring news of his release via email and said they were assigning extra security to the school and maintaining close communication with police.
Administrators even sent out Kovner’s driver’s-license photo to parents in case they spot him in the area. “This is a nightmare,” one parent said. “We know the school is doing whatever they can, and they’ve been great. But you just never know with something like this.”
Additional reporting by Natalie Musumeci and Priscilla DeGregory