Attempted Elementary School Student Kidnapping — Did It Really Happen?

Last night and early this morning a rather peculiar news story was making its rounds across the usual local news channels.

According to the stories, an 8-year-old, third grade student was almost abducted while she was playing on her school’s playground during recess.  The incident allegedly took place this past Monday afternoon.  Naturally, the girl’s mother is in an uproar that not only could such a crime take place at a school, but that it also took the Atlanta police department more than four hours to respond to the situation.

But when you take a closer look at the situation, parts of the story seem rather odd.

Let’s take a look at our four major news stations (WSBTV, FOX5, 11alive and CBS46) and see how each one reported this story.  Up first is WSBTV.

In the WSBTV article we get a general idea about what allegedly took place at Deerwood Academy on Monday afternoon.  The 8-year-old girl was on the playground, she was attacked by a stranger, and he ran away when her teacher blew a whistle, signifying that recess was finished.  The girl’s mom is upset that not only was her daughter attacked at school, but that the playground doesn’t even have a fence around it.  Plus there was a long time before the Atlanta police department was notified of the incident.

There’s a video about the incident on WSBTV’s website, and it has a little more information.  In the video we hear claims that the man walked over to the girl, grabbed her and told her, “Don’t move.  Don’t move.  Just stay here.  Don’t talk.  Don’t say nothin’.”  He allegedly grabbed and choked and even pointed a gun in the girl’s face.  Later, after they were inside the building, the teacher took her back to the classroom, but didn’t notify the principal until about 40 minutes later.

Strangely enough, the video made it seem like the mother was more upset about the lack of a safety fence around the playground rather than an armed man violently attacking her daughter.

Next is FOX5‘s version of the story.

FOX5’s article basically gives us the same information as WSBTV.  A little more is added to the story when you watch the video on FOX5’s website.

In the video, the girl tells us about how the man walked up to her, he grabbed her shirt and started choking her.  That’s when his gun fell out of his pocket.  He grabbed it and pointed it at her face.  She tried to scream but couldn’t.  When the teacher blew the whistle to signify that recess was over, the girl claimed that the guy ran away and she passed out.  Her friends tried to wake her up, and when she did, she told her teacher what happened, but it sounds like her teacher didn’t believe her.  She said that her teacher just told her to, “get back in line.”

Here is 11alive‘s take on the story.

11alive’s article doesn’t really add that much more information to the story.  The article gives a brief rundown about the incident as well as the delay with the police department.  The accompanying video seems like the news company desperately wants to link this incident with that of a naked pervert who exposed himself to a female teenager the previous week.  That happened in the local area, but in a private residence and NOT at any school.

The only extra piece of information provided by 11alive was a brief description of the alleged suspect of the playground attacker.  The article mentions him as a “tall male who appeared to be biracial (Black/Hispanic).  Purple shirt (torn) Black Jeans, Black backpack, bad odor.”  All of that information was from the police report.

Now let’s see what CBS46 has to say.

Here we can see that CBS46’s only article about the attempted abduction focuses on the delayed response by the Atlanta police department, and virtually nothing about the harrowing incident.  It’s not the fault of the police department for the delay, but rather the Atlanta Public Schools.

THE SCHOOL AND PLAYGROUND

Located on Fairburn Road, Deerwood Academy (called Deerwood Elementary on Google Maps) is a somewhat small school that seems to be mostly enclosed within a single structure.  The main parking lot is separated from the school by the bus lane.  The playground is very close to the building and about a hundred feet away from the closest doors.  It stands to reason that the teachers would primarily use those two sets of outer doors (with the blue awnings) on the north side of the building to take the students to and from the playground.

The playground itself is small and simple.  I’m sure my classmates and I would have had fun playing on it years ago.

North of the playground (the upper part of the photo) is a large grassy field.  That field actually slopes downhill and away from the school itself.  Surrounding the field and partially separating the school from the road are a bunch of widely spaced trees.

The important thing to note is that while it’s possible to sneak your way through some of the trees, you’ll definitely stand out if you have to cross any of the grass and approach the playground.  Remember that the article from FOX5 said that he “rushed across the grass.”  In the videos the girl claimed that he just walked up to her, not running or rushing.  We know how the news media likes to emphasize and over-exaggerate to push a message.

WHAT’S ODD ABOUT THE STORY?

A couple of points stood out to me when I first heard about the story late last night.

For starters, where were the girl’s classmates?

Nowhere did I hear about the girl’s classmates during the incident.  We know that she was not alone on the playground.  We also know that it’s a very small playground.  This was recess.  Where there’s one student, you’ll very likely find at least ten others.  (That’s for a very small class by itself.  Classes tend to go to recess in pairs, so realistically the number of students playing outside can number up to sixty or seventy depending on the size of the school.)

So where were the other students?  The moment that a tall, strange man would have tried to grab a student, you know that at least *some* of them would have started screaming in panic.  These are third graders.  They would have screamed, ran for help, and some of them might have even tried to help fight off the attacker.  One thing is for sure —- they would have suddenly made a LOT of noise and commotion, something that teachers and faculty would have heard and investigated.

But there’s absolutely no mention of that at all.

Did she really pass out from being choked?

It was only in the FOX5 video that the girl admitted to passing out when the attacker ran away.  Did the guy actually squeeze her neck hard enough to block the flow of blood and/or air?  Was she just so overwhelmed from emotions that she simply collapsed on the spot and was unconscious?  Allegedly it took a few moments before she woke up and then went over to her teacher to tell her what happened.  Wouldn’t some of her classmates have rushed over to get the teacher and have her see that their classmate was injured?  That’s kind of a big deal.

Where was the teacher?

I’m guessing that the teacher was outside of the building and probably standing near the door, perhaps under the awning.  Taking the students to recess has been an everyday event now for two months since the start of the school year.  At that point both you and the students know the routine.  More importantly, your ears are used to the normal sounds of the students, and they’re going to be more focused on sounds that don’t belong, such as 8-year olds screaming in panic because they’re watching a strange man suddenly walk over and attack a student for no reason at all.

Or the teacher was too busy talking to another teacher and/or student, or doing something on her phone.  We cannot eliminate those possibilities as way too many teachers are incredibly lazy these days.  But still, if students suddenly started screaming in panic, then that easily would have attracted the teacher’s attention, even just for their own curiosity.

Multiple articles basically claimed that the teacher had no idea that anything bad happened.  She just blew her whistle as usual, letting the students know that it was time to go back inside.  It was that sheer coincidence in timing that happened to scare away the attacker just as he began strangling the student.

Was it really an attempted kidnapping, or just a random attack?

The news media has been flashing around the whole “attempted kidnapping” angle all evening and this morning on their news program.  Yet if this was an attempted kidnapping, why did this guy tell the girl to stay still and not move?  Why did he start choking her instead of, you know, grabbing her around the waist and take off running away from the playground?  He could have also punched and knocked her out, and then easily carried her away from the school.

At no point did we hear any evidence of this being an attempted kidnapping.  From the girl’s story it was just a straight up assault by a random crazy guy.  Of course, we all know that an “attempted kidnapping” sounds far more sinister than just an “assault.”  It’s easy to see why the media has been pushing that angle.

Why didn’t the teacher believe the girl’s story of being attacked?

I can picture it now:

“Ms. Teacher, I was just attacked on the playground.  Some guy choked me and pointed a gun in my face.  I passed out when he ran away.”

“Go stand in line with everybody else.  Recess is over.  It’s time to go back to class.”

That’s basically what we’re meant to believe happened between the student and teacher immediately following the attack.  She was told to stand in line, and she was taken back to her classroom with the rest of the students.  It wasn’t until a little while later that the student saw the school nurse, and the principal was informed about what happened.  That’s when the school cleared the playground and went into lockdown.

That last part is important.

It’s clear that the school’s admins jumped into action when they heard about the alleged incident.  With stories like that, you play the safe route and jump into action first, and then ask questions later.  Protecting the students is one of the school’s top priorities, especially with these being young, elementary school students.  It’s also about liability.  Admins will gladly pull the panic alarm and let the local authorities determine if there’s an active threat or not, shifting that part of responsibility off their hands should there actually be a threat.

So why didn’t the teacher believe the girl’s story, even with the liability angle?

These days the vast majority of teachers will automatically play the “safe card” and alert admins to the slightest hint of any kind of trouble.  If they legitimately think there’s a problem, they’ll call and get help.  Almost all of them will go that route and, thus, pass on the responsibility (and liability) to the next higher level of authority.  It covers their ass should there actually be a real problem at the school.  There’s an intricate system in place to cover basically any kind of emergency, and when you follow it, then you won’t be reprimanded, fired, or worse.

So again, why didn’t this teacher report the incident?  WHY?

Then again, what teacher isn’t going to believe a wild tale (told by the victim) about being approached by a strange man, being held briefly at gunpoint, and then being strangled by him and ultimately passing out, right there on the playground of all places?  That’s totally plausible, right?

Or maybe not.

As I stated earlier, *if* such an attack would have happened during recess, then at least *some* of the girl’s classmates would have screamed and gone running to the teacher in panic.  That wave of panic would have spread rapidly through anybody that came in contact with them.  Faculty would have quickly investigated and have seen if they needed to report an incident.

What we do not know is the relationship between the teacher and the student.  Is this a student who keeps looking for attention or ways to get out of class?  That’s a big problem in schools these days.  If that’s true, then it’s another reason why the teacher didn’t believe her wild story.

I’m guessing that back in the classroom, the girl kept complaining about her neck being sore, or something of that nature.  I’m guessing that’s when the teacher allowed her to go to see the school’s nurse, and that’s when the admins were alerted to a possible danger on the campus, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.  That would explain the 40-minute delay from the incident to when the principal was notified.  As far as why it took so much longer for the Atlanta police to be notified, you’ll have to ask the Atlanta Public Schools.

Did any cameras cover the playground?

With all of today’s technology and the over-emphasis towards safety, did this school have an outdoor camera monitoring the playground?  It’s simple and cheaper than ever to install security cameras.  Many schools have them all over the place.  Did the school have any outdoor cameras covering that part of the campus?  What about cameras looking towards the MARTA bus stop?

Wait.  What?  A MARTA bus stop right there at an elementary school?

Yep.

That’s the school’s playground in the background.  Look how close it is to the bus stop.  It’s less than two hundred feet away on flat, mostly open ground.

I know that we’re taught by media and society that we’re not *supposed* to associate MARTA with crime, especially on the bus, and that it’s mostly safe, but the thought is still there.  That bus stop is basically on school ground.  An elementary school of all places, and, as pointed out by the girl’s mother, an elementary school without any sort of safety fence.

To me, that’s the only (unreported, of course) part of this incident that gives it any credibility.  Yes, at times, every once in a while, you can encounter some crazy people on the buses.  It’s a part of life.  It’s possible that some crazy guy got off the bus, walked over to the playground, and decided to attack a student.  It sounds wild and ludicrous, but that extreme possibility is still there.

Where are the other students?  Where are the witnesses?  Is there a single security camera (at the school, on a MARTA bus, at somebody’s home or business, etc.) that captured a glimpse of this supposed tall guy with light brown skin, wearing a torn shirt, carrying a backpack, and having a bad odor?

The Atlanta police department began working on this case on Monday afternoon, almost 48 hours ago.  This is a guy who allegedly attacked a young child.  Give the people updates so they can keep their eyes open and help catch him.  But so far there’s been nothing since the initial report.  Nothing.

Sometimes it takes a few days before “victims” finally admit that their ridiculous story was really a hoax.