Walnut School students and staff members were locked inside the school Tuesday while police searched in the area for a man who had been listed as an absconder from Lyon County Community Corrections supervision.
Emporia Police Lt. John Koelsch said that he had called the school as a precautionary measure to protect the children, after police were notified that Community Corrections Officer Gerald Ingalls, who is a Lyon County Sheriff’s deputy assigned to the corrections office, and Brad Douglas had located the absconder, Benjamin Fox, on Washington Street, not far from the school. Fox apparently ran from the officers.
“He could have ended up on the school grounds pretty easily,” Koelsch said.
Community Corrections Director Robert Sullivan said that Ingalls, Douglas and other corrections officers had been looking for Fox for some time. Ingalls and Douglas are assigned to high-risk offenders.
“And as soon as they located him, he immediately took off running,” Sullivan said.
Fox was on probation for felony sale of a depressant, hallucinogen, stimulant or steroid, and for misdemeanor theft. When he failed to report to his probation officer, he was classified as an absconder.
“We were just really proud of them for being persistent and working really hard” to find Fox, Sullivan said. “... When it all came together, we couldn’t have caught him without the police department. The police department responded so quickly and were there to back us up just immediately.”
The children and staff at Walnut were locked inside the school as soon as Koelsch called to alert Principal Ben Coltrane of the situation.
“Police called the school and asked them to lock all doors,” said Nancy Horst, community relations director for the school district. “All exterior doors are always locked except the front entrance so it was the only one that had to be locked.”
Horst said that children had been on the playground and were brought into the building after the call from police, and a staff member went outside to make sure that everyone was inside. A custodian went through the building and asked each teacher to lock his or her classroom door, while the other custodian monitored the front entrance.
“Police called back once (the) suspect was caught and everything returned to normal before school was dismissed,” Horst said.
The call from police came about 3:30 p.m.
Police and community corrections officers found Fox about 10 minutes later and the school doors were unlocked. The incident did not delay children’s release from school, she said.
madpoet (anonymous) says...
I hope the parents were told about this incident. It would be rather upsetting to the kids to be dragged back inside and locked into their rooms like that. Bravo to the officers for catching the guy so quickly and thinking ahead to warn the school.
November 13, 2009 at 1:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justmyopinion (anonymous) says...
nope, we were not advised.
November 13, 2009 at 4:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Bjnemp (anonymous) says...
Uh... the entire incident took ten minutes. How long do you think it would take the school staff to phone every parent of every student to advise them of the lockdown? Hours, to be sure. The staff was protecting your children. Stop looking for something to complain about and be thankful for the quick and prudent actions of the police and the school staff members.
November 13, 2009 at 4:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
empbrat (anonymous) says...
I agree Bjnemp...people should be glad that the police and schools make sure that the children are safe. I'm sure that the teachers explained once the children were safe in their rooms. If they hadn't done this then people would be complaining that the school wasn't protecting the children.
November 14, 2009 at 6:38 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
madpoet (anonymous) says...
I don't expect the parents to be called but how long would it take to type a note and print it off to give the kids? Less than 10 minutes, I'm sure. If my kid came home telling me about how they were locked in their room for 10 minutes, I'd sure be wondering what the heck happened.
November 14, 2009 at 9:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
oh4theluvof (anonymous) says...
With all the things going on in a classroom and the competence of the teachers, I'm sure the kids didn't even know that they were locked in. The teachers likely didn't announce it and you know how well kids listen to instructions anyway...........they wouldn't have payed attention to what the custodians or phone speaker announcements to the teachers even were. I'm sure it wasn't put out over the whole school speaker system either.
Good job, LEO's and school staff! You are all appreciated, despite the rants many of us often go on or dissatisfaction we express over certain situations.
November 15, 2009 at 2:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )