Questions remain after 11-year-old goes missing from Cecil Intermediate School

CECIL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A community is relieved after a Canon-McMillan student who went missing during school hours and was found safe several hours later.

>> Police find missing boy hours after he left Cecil Intermediate School

“Oh my gosh, so glad he was found safe! Today you never know abductions and everything, you never know,” Betty Caddies said.

Police say an 11-year-old walked out of Cecil Intermediate School around 9:20 a.m. Thursday.

Channel 11 was there eight hours later when his family got the news he was found more than six miles away in Peters Township.

Cecil Township police say the Canon-McMillan School District alerted them the student was missing around 2 p.m., kicking off a large scale search. Peters Township firefighters used a drone and found the boy behind a Firehouse Subs.

Canon-McMillan parent and pastor Patrick Keeley told us he prayed for the boy to be found safe.

“We saw a rainbow after they found him over the church and school, so grateful to God he was found safe and he’s good,” Keeley said.

Channel 11 went to Canon-McMillan’s administration building today with questions. The superintendent gave us a timeline:

• The student was in homeroom and marked present for the day.
• They have a process to check attendance for each class, but there was a unique set of circumstances which created some confusion about the student’s whereabouts. He didn’t answer our question about what those circumstances were. Thursday, they started new procedures to try to keep this from happening again.
• Once they knew the student wasn’t in class, the school resource officer swept the building while the principal looked at surveillance video and called his mom.
• After seeing video of the student leaving the building, they called police.

Police are still looking into where the child was for nearly eight hours, but because he walked a good distance on the Montour Trail.

The superintendent told Channel 11 the safety of students and staff is their top priority and they’re going to continue to review their procedures.

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