The Portland Jewish Academy, which took extra security measures this year to protect two students whose divorced parents were embroiled in a contentious custody fight, is offering counseling to faculty and students this week after learning of Monday's murder-suicide that suddenly left the students' orphans.

Portland police say Ian Martin Elias, 47, killed his ex-wife Nicolette Naomi Elias, 46, in her Southwest Portland home early Monday morning, then fled with their two daughters, ages 8 and 9, across the city to his Northeast Portland home. There, as a tactical squad of officers surrounded his house, Ian Elias came out the back door and fatally shot himself. Police then rushed into his house on Northeast 25th Avenue and found the two daughters safe.

"Our community is devastated by what's happened, and our hearts go out'' to the Elias girls, said Steven Albert, executive director of the Portland Jewish Academy and the Mittleman Jewish Community Center.

Counselors from Jewish Family & Child Services and rabbis from the community will be at the school Tuesday, a faculty training day. When students return to classes on Wednesday, counselors from the Dougy Center for Grieving Children and Families also will be present, Albert said.

Court records show that the girls' father, Ian Elias, had been ordered not to be on the property of the Portland Jewish Academy or the adjoining Mittleman Jewish Community Center in Southwest Portland.

The no-trespass order was emailed to Ian Elias on May 4 by school principal Merrill Hendin and Beth Germain, the school and center's chief financial officer and interim executive director.

The school had added a security guard outside during student drop-off and pick-up times, largely because of the Elias couple's custody battle.

Ian M. Elias, banned from children's school Portland Jewish Academy and Mittleman Jewish Community Center campus in May

Hendin described the actions the school took in a declaration filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court in May. Hendin said the school ordered Ian Elias not to come onto the school or community center campus after learning that he had posted several derogatory YouTube videos about his wife on the Facebook page of the Portland Jewish Academy's after-school program called Kidscorner.

Ian Elias also had sent emails to other students' parents with links to his YouTube videos that included recordings of his arguments with his ex-wife. In some, he identified the academy's principal and the school's counselor by name as among those who were against him, according to court records.

In addition, the Mittleman Jewish Community Center's Germain alerted Portland police officers who patrol the Southwest neighborhoods.

"They agreed to patrol the

MJCC

and

PJA

more often until further notice, in addition to patrolling the area around Nikki's home,'' Hendin wrote earlier this year.

"Although security is tighter and we are protected more by law enforcement, we realize that we are dealing with a situation which is unpredictable,'' Hendin wrote in the May court declaration. "We have witnessed the anger and volatility of Ian Elias in our building over the past year. The responsibility of making sure our school and community center are safe is a tremendous one at all times, and with these events has become daunting and of deep concern.''

Albert said he couldn't comment on the measures taken in response to the Elias case, but said the center works closely with police and takes necessary precautions when staff become aware of a security risk.

He said the Elias girls were very involved in the school community.

"We want to do everything we can to support them,'' he said.

--Maxine Bernstein