Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 17, 1992                   TAG: 9203170142
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLS TO BEEF UP RULES IN WAKE OF LOST-BOY INCIDENT

The boy's teacher at Virginia Heights School had questioned him about where he was supposed to go after school, said Assistant School Superintendent Richard Kelley.

"He told her that he was supposed to be walking to his baby sitter's," Kelley said.

School officials met with Annette Gibson, the boy's mother, on Monday. But they said they do not know specifically how the boy got on the bus.

Gibson was not satisfied with that response.

"We raised questions; we got no answers," she said. "I told them I thought Scottie's life was in jeopardy because of their neglect."

Although Kelley said school employees acted properly, he plans to offer suggestions this week on how the school system can strengthen its after-school transportation rules. Kelley also plans to meet with school administrators and teachers to discuss the rules.

Gibson had sent a note to Scottie's teacher asking her to allow him to walk with other children to his baby sitter's house, a couple of blocks from the school.

The boy was dismissed by his teacher Thursday along with other students walking home. Somehow he ended up on the school bus by mistake.

A substitute bus driver dropped off the boy at Wasena Avenue and Maiden Lane, a few blocks from his home on Winona Avenue. Scottie, a 5-year-old kindergartner, got lost and crawled under a piece of plywood leaning against a garage.

For the next 32 hours, firefighters, school security officers and concerned citizens searched for him. He was found cold, but safe Friday night by a resident who was looking for a pet cat.

In an interview Saturday, Scottie said he hid because he feared a man harassing schoolchildren in the Raleigh Court area. "My teacher told us there was this man going around picking up little children," he said.

Gibson, his mother, said Scottie learned about the so-called "stalker" in a school assembly.

Kelley said that although the assembly dealt with how youngsters could protect themselves from strangers, police officers conducting the assembly never mentioned the stalker. Teachers reinforced the police officers' message when the children returned to classrooms, but they did not mention the stalker, either, Kelley said.

However, students at the school were talking about the stalker throughout the day, Kelley said.

School officials believe that Scottie started walking from the school but was unable to find his stepsister, Chasity Whittaker, who was supposed to meet him on Thursday. Chasity had been delayed and did not meet the boy.

Chastity had been delayed and did not meet the boy.

Kelley said Scottie may have walked back onto the school grounds and could have been placed on the bus by another teacher who was unfamiliar with his after-school arrangements.

Still, he said school officials have no concrete evidence of what happened.