Michael Sean Stanley is shown in a handout photo.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sask. CrimeStoppers
October 05, 2013 - 2:36 PM
KINDERSLEY, Sask. - Schools in several west-central Saskatchewan communities locked their doors and kept children inside Thursday after a warning about a potentially violent high-risk sex offender.
RCMP in Kindersley said there had been two unconfirmed sightings of a vehicle connected to Michael Sean Stanley. There were also reports that Stanley may have been seen on foot in the Kindersley area Thursday afternoon.
Three schools in Kindersley along with schools in Coleville, Eston, Marengo, Eatonia and Plenty went into what police call "hold and secure" mode.
"The students were locked in the building during the school day and no buses in that area ran. RCMP advised that parents had to come to the school to pick up their children at the end of the day," said Sun West School Division spokeswoman Roxan Foursha.
"They called for the hold and secure on all schools in that area (as) a precautionary measure because of possible sightings of a high-risk sex offender from Edmonton that had been in the news recently."
Foursha said RCMP have indicated the schools will be on alert for at least the next 24 hours unless Stanley is caught.
Mounties also said there was a possible sighting of Stanley in Rosetown, just east of Kindersley.
There was initially word from the RCMP that an elementary school in Rosetown was also under "hold and secure" mode, but Foursha said that was not the case.
Stanley has a long history of sex offences, including taking children from playgrounds.
The Edmonton man's electronic monitoring bracelet was found Tuesday on the roof of a business in Lloydminster — it had been cut off.
Foursha said school buses did not run after school Thursday.
"RCMP advise that parents must come to the school and pick up their children and pick up only their own children," she said.
She said buses will bring to students to school Friday morning. However, parents will have to pick their kids up at the end of the day if the alert is not lifted.
Foursha could not say how many students were affected. Some of the schools have students from kindergarten to Grade 12, but even those older students need to be picked up by parents, she said.
Students were still allowed to move around within the schools.
Public schools in Lloydminster, on the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary, locked their doors and kept children inside Wednesday amid concerns that Stanley may have been in the area.
The Lloydminster Public School Division lifted those restrictions Thursday morning after the RCMP said it's very likely that Stanley was no longer in the city.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2013