Owners and teachers of a Manhattan Beach preschool that was closed last summer amid allegations of child abuse filed 10 $20-million damage suits in Los Angeles Superior Court. They say they

were falsely cast as suspects of child abuse and molestation in published and oral reports released during an investigation of the Manhattan Ranch Pre-School and Kindergarten. After the

arrest of a 17-year-old playground aide at the school on suspicion of child molestation last July, the state Department of Social Services ordered the school closed, alleging that it had

been swapping pupils with the nearby McMartin Pre-School for purposes of sexual and physical abuse. MORE TO READ