A Flin Flon kindergarten student who was missing from his school for an hour and a half on Wednesday appears to have left the schoolyard to play with other children, the division superintendent now says.
“Seth had been dropped off at the school and started playing with two boys that weren’t students of ours,” Flin Flon School Division Supt. Blaine Veitch said Friday. One of the boys was about Seth’s age and the other was nine or 10, Veitch said.
Seth Robertson, 5, was dropped off at McIsaac School by his father before his afternoon kindergarten class but never made it into the school. He was missing for about one and a half hours, Veitch said Thursday.
READ MORE: RCMP probe report 5-year-old tied up, hit in Flin Flon schoolyard
While Veitch had limited information Thursday, by Friday morning he could say more. As far as school division staff can determine, the three boys left the schoolyard together and returned during recess. The non-students were then seen hitting Seth with a heavy necklace chain, Veitch said.
Some older McIsaac students saw what was going on at about 2:40 p.m., intervened and brought Seth into the school, Veitch said.
School officials don’t believe Seth was tied up the whole time he was missing, Veitch added, and Seth wasn’t badly injured.
“Seth wasn’t crying.”
However, the incident has raised concerns for Veitch about schoolyard supervision and how schools handle unexpected absences.
“There was supervision on the field,” he said. “It concerns me that a child was able to leave the field.”
The school is confident Seth left the schoolyard because it was used while he was missing and staff did do a visual sweep of the yard, Veitch said. The schoolyard is fenced but there are gates in it, he said.
They will also look at whether they should allow children who aren’t students to play in the schoolyard during school hours, he said. The children in question were spoken to and appeared polite and respectful, so no concerns were raised, he explained.
They’ll also look at whether they make an adequate effort to contact parents when students aren’t in class, Veitch said. School staff called Seth’s home when he didn’t show up in his class, according to policy, but Seth’s mom was sleeping after a night shift and his father was outside doing yardwork, so they didn’t get the call.
“I understand the parents’ concern and we are concerned,” he said.
“I was glad that our students intervened.”
The Robertsons said Friday that they didn’t wish to speak further about what had happened. They expressed concern Thursday about supervision at the school.
An RCMP spokeswoman said Friday that the incident had been reported to them but the facts couldn’t be substantiated.
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