“Missing” schoolgirl had never left school
We are happy to report that 5-year-old Juanita Elmira Manzanero, who we reported missing in yesterday’s newscast, never did leave school and is today back with her family. News Five had received a phone call from the police late Monday evening informing us that when the child’s father had gone to the school at 3:30 to pick her up, Manzanero could not be found. Ominously her school bag was left behind. The father also told police that he was informed his daughter had left the grounds in another car. Today both the school’s principal and the Ministry of Education denied the report saying the student was at school late because no one had come to pick her up and that the father never did come to the school at any time. Marcella Weatherburne, the child’s principal, told News Five that classes had been out since 2:30 and that she was told it was not until after 3:00 that evening that a young boy who normally picks up the child did come to the school and although he was told Manzanero was perhaps in the backyard playing he never looked for her nor asked for her. Weatherburne said Manzanero stayed in her office until 5:30 that evening when a friend of the girl’s family happened to stop by at school and offered to take her to a home she normally goes to in the evenings. It was there the girl’s mother picked her up and safely took her daughter home.
Marcella Weatherburne, Principal, St. Mary’s Infant School
“I was shocked because nothing went like that. I didn’t see that child’s father; he didn’t come here at all. He went straight to the police it seems to make a report. He did not come to school because that child was here till almost 5:00 yesterday evening.”
“A little boy whom she goes home with at times, he came and checked on her and he found her schoolbag in the classroom and didn’t see her. The teacher told him that probably she was in the back yard playing. He did not go and look for her but took the schoolbag and gave it to an adult who had come for him and they went and informed the father that the child was not at school and they had found only her schoolbag.”
Oscar Reyes, Officer in Charge, School Warden Programme
“The role of the school warden basically is to ensure that while children are in school that they are safe in school. People who come in to pick up their children, the school warden takes a note of it license plate, vehicles, time and everything and records it in a logbook. This is the reason why we know that the child was at school, because we know nobody absolutely came to pick up that child.”
“In fact what we want to do is to tell the parents that as along as their children are in school that their children are safe. We have a school warden in every school. In fact some schools have two or three wardens posted just to ensure that children are safe. As long as that child enters that school yard, some responsible adult must take that child, otherwise we will be able to find out who takes that child from school.”
According to Police Press Officer Christy Castillo, when the father came into the police station, the investigating officer says the man appeared to have been drinking. The officer cautioned the man about the seriousness of making a false report to the police. It is not known if any charges will be brought against him.
