Child located after Vancouver school placed under lockdown

On his fourth school day ever, Braiden Gonzalez, age 5, promoted himself from kindergarten at Walnut Grove Elementary School.

Bad idea. Especially in the hypersensitized wake of June’s disappearance from school of Kyron Horman, a Portland second-grader who remains missing.

For more than four hours on Monday, Braiden sat in the first-grade classroom seat of a young boy who hasn’t appeared for classes since Vancouver district schools opened on Wednesday.

He raised his hand and answered to that boy’s name, more than once. He followed along with each instruction.

He had the first-grade teacher, still just learning her new pupils, hoodwinked.

It was only after Braiden’s mother came to pick him up shortly after 11 a.m. and find him marked “absent,” only after the school went into lockdown, scrambling Clark County sheriff’s deputies and three TV news crews to the scene, only after his photo, lifted from Monday morning’s school bus surveillance tape, was distributed to all teachers, that the young boy landed safely in his family’s arms.

“He asked if he was in trouble,” Sgt. Chad Rothenberger of the sheriff’s office told assembled media at the campus on Northeast 72nd Avenue, north of the Van Mall neighborhood. The answer from a group of Braiden’s greatly relieved relatives was, “No,” Rothenberger said.

Vancouver Public Schools leaders may not so easily get off the hook.

A district spokeswoman confirmed that Braiden’s family never received a phone call Monday morning despite his absence, duly noted by his kindergarten teacher.

That would have been an extra, “manual” telephone call from an attendance clerk. The district’s automated absence telephone system, which normally spits out calls to homes of absentees each school morning, isn’t used in the chaotic initial days of the school year, said spokeswoman Kris Sork.

That’s because so many pupils switch rooms or schools, are registered or arrive late and make other changes, she said.

Also, Monday marked Vancouver’s official “fourth day” enrollment head count — a statewide practice that helps set per-pupil allocation of state education dollars — another reason for delay in employing the automated system, she said.

“Today was that day: Most kids, by now, would be registered in their schools, in the right schools, the right classes,” Sork said.

“Historically, we haven’t utilized (the automated system) before that, because of all the calls that would go out in error. Parents would be getting calls of absences, perhaps, for one school when their child is in another school,” she said.

Now that policy may change, and soon.

Sork said late Monday afternoon that the district’s elementary education chief already had met with Walnut Grove’s principal to learn details of Braiden’s case and consider changes.

“In light of (Monday’s) incident, they’re going to re-evaluate that and it may change for next year,” she said. “I think it’s pretty imminent that they’ll make a decision.”

Regardless, Vancouver’s automated call system should be up and running today, Sork said.

That might track any future misadventures by Walnut Grove’s 115 kindergarten pupils, split among two morning and two afternoon classes. Total school enrollment is about 700 students.

Still: Did someone at Walnut Grove blunder by not making a “manual call” about a missing 5-year-old?

“No one made a mistake. No,” Sork said.

There’s no district policy in place to require manual calls in the days prior to the automated system kicking in — also something district officials may review, she said.

Other districts’ policies

At Clark County’s other two largest school districts, there’s no such lag.

The only delay in Evergreen Public Schools’ buildings may be in getting late-registered students’ contact information into the database. But an automated phone system runs from day one, “as soon as we get that list in,” said district spokeswoman Carol Fenstermacher.

It’s the same in the Battle Ground district, starting its second year with automated calls. First calls go out in the 10-to-10:30 a.m. period, with another follow-up evening call, said district spokesman Gregg Herrington.

“We are very diligent about this,” said Ken Evans, Yacolt Elementary School principal, according to Herrington.

Back at Walnut Grove, the first-grade teacher quickly spotted her imposter once Braiden’s same-day photo was distributed.

Sork said his mother planned to accompany him directly to the right kindergarten room today.

Thoughts of Kyron

Following Monday’s campus frenzy, no school employees were made available to speak.

Initially, Braiden’s family declined to speak with reporters, other than to indicate great relief. At least two uncles joined another half-dozen relatives who kept nervous vigil as sheriff’s deputies joined school staff in scouring the campus.

Later Monday afternoon, one uncle, Travis Wagner, spoke to news reporters about the day’s events, which began with an eerie similarity to the day Kyron Horman vanished. He thanked sheriff’s deputies and school staff, reported Braiden was no worse for wear — and sent a message of consolation toward Oregon.

“That’s a very big scare. (We) very much feel for Kyron’s family,” Wagner said.

One new Walnut Grove parent, who’d arrived Monday to register her three children, was taken aback by the swarm of law enforcement and media.

“I’d probably go ballistic if they missed (her son) in a head count and I didn’t know he was missing all day,” said Kalyn Kays.

That was the apparent timeline in Kyron Horman’s case last June. On Monday, Braiden’s family uncovered his absence, and found resolution, much sooner.

Evergreen’s spokeswoman voiced sympathy for Walnut Grove’s staff after a high-anxiety day.

“You try to get it right,” Fenstermacher said of campus security. “We are all (caught off guard), at some point.”

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.