Grandmother questions school response to girl’s report of stranger enticing her

The grandmother of a 13-year-old Arnold Middle School student who reported a stranger’s trying to lure her into his sport-utility vehicle Monday on the Allen Elementary School campus said a subsequent school district email to parents didn’t mention the incident.

Lisa Rabon forwarded the message to the Ledger-Enquirer, noting its content said nothing about what the Arnold Middle School eighth-grader reported:

“Good afternoon Awesome Arnold Parents,” it read. “We are asking for your help in keeping our students safe. Please adhere to the parent pick up and drop off procedures that have been in place all year. Car riders are dropped off and picked up in a supervised area in the rear of the school. If you are having your student walk and wait in unsupervised areas, this could put them in harms way. If you are dropping them off or picking them up on the street, there is the potential of being hit by a car as well. Please follow the safety procedures. Thank you and have a great afternoon!”

Muscogee County School District representative Valerie Fuller said the message was sent to remind parents of the school’s safety procedures for parents picking up students. Fuller and school administrators thought the incident happened off campus.

It did not, said Rabon and her granddaughter, who reported it both to the school district and to Columbus police: The girl regularly walked from Arnold across a field to Allen Elementary School’s adjoining campus to wait under Allen’s breezeway for her grandmother to pick her up. The stranger tried to entice her into his vehicle on Allen’s campus, the girl said.

Police were called at 4:40 p.m. Monday to the 5201 23rd Ave. elementary school, where the girl gave them this account:

About 4 p.m., a black man about 50 years old, wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and driving a dark brown SUV, came by and invited her into his vehicle. She repeatedly refused, then told him she had a cell phone and threatened to call the police.

The man made an obscene gesture, said “F—k you” and drove quickly away, the girl said.

The SUV’s license plate had a blue star on it, she said. She could not say whether that was an emblem affixed to the tag or part of its design.

She said it was raining, and the man offered her a ride to get out of the weather. As he further entreated her, she noticed he had a tear drop tattoo on one eye and a “scratchy” voice, she said. The vehicle’s front seat was covered in plastic, she said.

The girl said that just before the man came by, she thought she saw her grandmother’s black pickup coming, so she walked from the breezeway across Allen’s entrance road to look, stopping just inside a fence that borders school property. She was starting back to the breezeway when the man pulled up, she said. He drove toward Arnold afterward, she said.

Her grandmother arrived minutes later, and they tried to report the incident at Arnold, but a school secretary told them to call police from Allen because it didn’t happen on Arnold’s campus, the grandmother said.

Fuller said the district calls a student walking home a “walker.” In an email regarding the Monday incident, Fuller wrote: “School administrators say the grandparent instructed the student to be a walker for pick-up at the corner of 23rd Avenue and 51st Street.”

The girl and her grandmother said that is inaccurate, as the grandmother warned her never to deviate from her route between Arnold and Allen. Because the Arnold and Allen properties connect, the girl never stepped off school grounds, they said.

Fuller said the district has increased patrols around the schools.

She said the district advises parents never to leave students walking off a school campus unsupervised. If an adult cannot accompany them, they should walk in pairs or groups for protection. Schools don’t have the staff and security to escort every student leaving campus to walk home or to a pickup spot, she said.

The Columbus Police Department Special Victims Unit will follow up on the patrol officer’s report, said police Maj. J.D. Hawk.

This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Grandmother questions school response to girl’s report of stranger enticing her."