Some girls at Mililani High School said they will start walking in groups and only in public areas because a man is on the loose who allegedly grabbed a freshman girl and tried to push her into bushes as she walked to school on Monday.

Police yesterday released an artist's rendering of the suspect and are asking for the public's help to find him. Police said the 14-year-old girl, who has martial arts training, was able to fight back and run away before calling for help.

The girl suffered scratches but was otherwise unhurt, said Honolulu Police Sgt. Kim Buffet.

"She's just shaken up and understandably so," Buffet said.

The girl described her attacker as 20 to 30 years, 5 feet 10 inches tall and 160 pounds. He wore older-style aviation sunglasses, long pants and a light-gray, long-sleeve sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head, Buffet said.

She said the girl's self-defense training clearly fended off the attack. But other girls and women should carry whistles on their key chains or backpacks and not be afraid to yell out or make noise if accosted, Buffet said.

"The best defense mechanism is to draw attention to yourself," she said.

After the incident on Monday, Mililani's principal, John Brummel, told students at a homecoming rally about the case, as well as other recent off-campus incidents involving unidentified men and female Mililani High School students.

Brummel also sent a letter home to parents yesterday urging students to be more cautious and aware.

Brummel's letter talked about two recent reports of female students being accosted off-campus by adult men in cars who "made suggestive innuendos and one male exposed himself."

Heather Omori, 17, Mililani High School's homecoming queen, sat stunned with the rest of the homecoming court Monday listening to Brummel list the incidents.

"I was kind of like, shocked," Omori said. "I was shocked that stuff like this could happen in Mililani."

Brummel was off-campus at a principals' meeting yesterday. But one of Mililani High School's four vice principals, Andrea Moore, said Brummel also made an announcement over the school's public address system last week warning of another off-campus case involving "some young adult male trying to lure one of the girls into his car."

It sounded eerily similar, Moore said, to an April attempted kidnapping case in which police continue to look for a man who tried to pull a girl into a black, four-door Nissan while she sat at a Mililani bus stop.

In Monday's case, police said the girl was walking to school on Anania Drive near Puanane Loop at about 7 a.m. when a strange man walked up and tried to start a conversation.

The girl said she didn't want to talk and asked the man to leave. He then grabbed her arm and tried to push her into hedges, Buffet said.

The girl, who is from a military family, fended off the man's arm and kicked him in the knee area, then ran home and called police.

"She knew better than to talk to him," Buffet said.

School officials did not have the sketch yesterday and had not added any additional security, Moore said.

No parents had contacted the school by yesterday, Moore said, and none of the school's 2,483 students had taken advantage of on-campus counseling services.

"People need to pay attention and don't be foolish and walk alone," Moore said. "That goes for the boys as well as the girls. There's no need to take chances."

Several female students yesterday said they got the message.

Kaley Kanbara, a 17-year-old senior, called the incidents "kind of scary."

"I'm definitely going to be aware of my surroundings," Kanbara said.

Tracyn Nagata, a 16-year-old senior, was surprised by the number of cases.

"Usually Mililani is known as a very protected town and usually things like that don't happen," Nagata said. "It's not the first time it's happened. But hopefully nothing like that happens again."

She plans to follow Brummel's advice "to walk in pairs and never to walk alone," Nagata said. "I am planning to walk with other people, definitely, and stay in public areas. And carrying a cell phone is very important."

Dean Hazama, chairman of the Mililani High School community council, said he worries about Monday's incident, especially because it follows other attempted kidnappings near campus.

"We're very concerned, and we know that our campus security has been alerted," he said.

After the earlier incidents, Mililani High School officials sent fliers home to parents and Mililani complex schools.

"If this guy is willing to do this to a high school student, we have a concern that he might try to abduct an elementary school student," Hazama said.

Denice Painter, president of the school's Parent Teacher Student Organization, said she wants to set up an informational meeting for parents regarding student safety.

Like the girl who was attacked Monday, Painter said, a large number of students walk to and from school.

"There should be a concern of many parents because it's within six months that there were (other kidnapping) attempts," she said.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com and Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.