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.