Las Vegas police urge parents to supervise children’s massages

Nevada has no rules against massage therapists working on minors without supervision, but a Las Vegas police spokesman said parents should insist on being present.

Manyang Lou, 58, was arrested last month after an 11-year-old girl reported that he sexually assaulted her during a full-body massage. No one else was in the room at the time, according to his arrest report.

“It’s important for parents to know that whenever a person is treating your child, whether it’s a doctor, dentist or massage therapist, you have a right to be in the room with your child,” police spokesman Jay Rivera said. “We are not blaming the child’s parents, but we do recommend that they exercise that right.”

Lou, an independently contracted reflexologist, had been working for about a year at Kyou Beauty Spa, 4009 Spring Mountain Road, before his arrest, according to a spa representative who would not provide her full name.

She provided a copy of a Clark County business license issued to Lou for the period from Feb. 1 to Jan. 31, 2019. It describes him as a certified reflexologist.

The scope of practice for reflexologists, according to the license, is limited to the ears, hands and arms below the elbows, and feet and legs below the knees.

According to Lou’s arrest report, the assault occurred on Sept. 22. Sandy Anderson, executive director of the state Board of Massage Therapy, said a new regulation went into effect on Oct. 1 requiring reflexologists to be licensed with the Board of Massage Therapy.

The girl, a middle-school student, gave police a written statement in which she said she was taken into a massage room at the Chinatown spa and was alone in the room with Lou the entire time.

A woman who had accompanied the girl to the business was just outside the room, in the main area of the spa, getting a pedicure.

In a statement given Friday to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Kyou Beauty Spa said, “We’ve been 100 percent cooperative with the police, and we’ve given them everything we can to help with the investigation.”

Rivera also described the spa owners as “completely cooperative.”

Anderson said concerned members of the public may comment at an upcoming board meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 7 at the Grant Sawyer Building, 555 E. Washington Ave.

“In my own personal practice, I don’t work on a minor without a parent in the room,” said Anderson, who has been practicing massage therapy since 1994. “But right now, it is a personal choice.”

Lou’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 16 in Las Vegas Justice Court, according to court records.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.