Slidell Police Chief Freddie Drennan and St. Tammany Parish School Board Superintendent Gayle Sloan announced Tuesday that two more boys have come forth as victims of alleged molestation by former Abney Elementary custodian Dino Jay Schwertz of Slidell.

During a bail hearing Wednesday morning in District Court in Covington, Schwertz was denied bail, and another charge of aggravated rape and two counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile were added to the six counts of aggravated rape he was charged with on Monday. Schwertz will remain in the St. Tammany Parish Jail until his trial.

Schwertz, 41, was arrested Saturday after two 10-year-old students said the custodian had raped them three times each over a two-month period starting in September 2007. At a Tuesday press conference, Drennan announced that two more victims, an 8-year old and 11-year old, had come forward with sexual complaints against Schwertz.

On Monday, Abney officials gave students a letter to take home to their parents, explaining the incident and asking for parents to call the School Board for more information. At the Monday press conference, Sloan and Drennan said they did not think there were more victims, but they said the letters may bring forth others, and the strategy seemed to have worked.

The 11-year old boy and his parents came to the Slidell headquarters on Second Street Monday evening and filed molestation charges against Schwertz. The boy claims Schwertz molested him in the school bathroom around the same time the first two victims were attacked.

The parents of the 8-year-old victim called Sloan Tuesday, and she contacted Drennan, who sent officers to the boy's home.

Both boys were interviewed by counselors and police. The 8-year-old told police he was also molested in the school bathroom, sometime in December 2007.

Both Drennan and Sloan seemed in shock over the latest revelations at a Tuesday afternoon press conference in Drennan's office.

"This is a very devastating situation," Drennan said. "It's scary to a lot of us. Yesterday we only thought there were two victims."

That emotion of fear was shared by a parent of a 10-year old student at Abney.

"It's very frightening," Uchenna Vincent said. "It makes you wonder where your child is safe."

Vincent, a former police officer with the New Orleans Police Department, said she has talked to her son about what has happened.

"You have to give children the information to keep them safe," Vincent said.

Despite her reassurances, Vincent said her son is scared and has insisted in sleeping in her bedroom for the past two nights. All of the incidents with the four boys occurred during school hours in the school's bathroom, Drennan said.

This has brought about some fears from parents about students going to the bathroom unsupervised during school hours.

"He followed the victims into the bathroom, and it happened very quickly," Drennan said.

Sloan said students must sign in and out of classrooms to go to the bathroom and must have a hall pass. She said there was no sign of trouble.

"Nobody alerted anybody at the school that there was a problem in the bathroom," Sloan said.

Vincent had a suggestion to make students safer.

"Maybe they should send the students to the bathrooms and everywhere in pairs," Vincent said.

Sloan said the School Board has received calls from concerned parents, but the atmosphere at Abney on Tuesday and Wednesday was calm. She attributes that to the school starting the state-mandated LEAP exams.

"The testing kept the staff and students focused," Sloan said.

Still, she said Abney's principal, Kathleen Katsorchis, and her staff were very surprised when Schwertz was arrested.

"The principal is devastated. There were no prior complaints about Schwertz," Sloan said.

Drennan said Schwertz had prior charges for passing bad checks and violating a protection order, but there were no felony charges against him.

Sloan said the School Board performed a background check on Schwertz that is required by state law. She admitted the bad check charges were revealed in the check done by the Louisiana State Police, but passing bad checks is not something that would have precluded the School Board from hiring Schwertz. Drennan thinks it is a bit odd that at this point in his life, Schwertz would exhibit pedophile behavior.

"Sexual predators don't wake up one morning at 41 and decide to attack little boys," Drennan said.

Sloan said her office would send another letter to Abney parents to see if any more victims would come forth.

When Schwertz was fired on March 5, he was working as a custodian for the Northshore High School. He was a substitute custodian at Abney from July 2007 to January 2008, then he was promoted to full-time custodian and transferred to Northshore. Sloan said the promotion and transfer was a normal procedure, and she didn't think Schwertz was trying to "escape" from Abney because of his behavior.

She added it would take a bit longer to hear if any students at Northshore High had any complaints against Schwertz. She said the mood was calm at the high school.

After Tuesday's revelations, Drennan is taking a realistic view as to how big the case will get, and if there are more victims.

"I'm not naive enough to think this hasn't happened before. I hope it hasn't, but I wouldn't be surprised," Drennan said.