'Somebody was pulling me and telling me that my mother was waiting in a car to give me money.'

THE EDUCATION ministry has launched an investigation into an alleged attempted abduction of a young boy at a prominent Corporate Area primary school.

The ministry is also seeking answers as to why the administration of the school has so far failed to file a formal report.

Up to last Friday, more than a week after the incident, the Ministry of Education was not aware of the case.

Christine Ashman, one of several vendors at the school gate, rushed to save a child from the alleged abductor. According to Ashman, the man who tried to lure away the boy is usually seen hanging around the school gate.

known paedophile

The vendors claimed that the man is a known paedophile who frequents the facility. "Him a pervert. That man is sick," a female vendor told the news team.

Ashman said on the day in question, she overheard the man instructing the child to follow him to a car. "So I said no, the likkle boy mother gone to work, so you cannot stand up here ... and I chase him (away)."

She added: "Same time he was talking to two other little boys who were standing beside the child he wanted to take ... and he turned to them and say 'Come nuh', and me say, 'No, they can't come with you'."

She then told a male parent who was passing by about the issue. The parent then intervened and ordered the man to leave the school premises.

According to the child who was targeted by the would-be abductor, "... Somebody was pulling me and telling me that my mother was waiting in a car to give me money."

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Ashman sized up the would-be kidnapper as no more than 55 years old, stout and of brown complexion. He stands at about 5ft 8in and weighs around 170lb.

Ashman showed the Sunday Gleaner news team a bottle of soda she said one of the little boys left behind as he beat a hasty retreat from the advances of the abductor.

The vendor said she went to the principal and related the incident.

"The thing that get me so disgruntled is that if it even was a false alarm, the principal didn't even try to call the police."

But Robert Gillies, principal of the St Andrew-based institution, told our news team that he did not want to cause undue panic as he did not think the man wanted to abduct the child.

Gillies admitted that he arrived at his conclusion without speaking to the child involved.

When The Sunday Gleaner contacted Grace McLean, the education ministry's deputy chief education officer in charge of schools' operations, she promised to investigate the issue and provide us with an update.

However, McLean expressed shock that an event of that nature could have occurred and was not reported to the regional director, who would then inform the ministry.

"I am really kind of disturbed that an incident like this has not been reported to the ministry," she said.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com