Leigh elementary teachers will be talking to students about safety around strangers after an incident at the school Monday morning.
Two girls who were playing near the fence on Victoria Drive, near Toronto Street, during recess reported that a man walked up to the fence and asked if they wanted some chocolate.
They looked up but didn't say anything, at which point the man then threw some chocolate bars over the fence and then kept walking.
"What would a guy be doing with a bag full of chocolate, walking past the school?" asked the mother of one of the girls, who asked not to be named. "You don't know if he could be a creep, slowly gaining their trust. My daughter always plays there. Maybe he's been watching them."
The mother suggested there needs to be gates installed and greater supervision during recess and lunchtimes.
An email went out to parents on Monday afternoon and was also posted on the school's website, which noted there was no attempt to lure the girls off of school grounds. The school has also contacted Coquitlam RCMP and notified the school board office.
Leigh elementary principal Remi Collins said the school will be making some immediate changes to improve safety, including having special education assistants (SEAs) wear the same brightly coloured vests that other teachers supervising the school grounds wear.
"That will really differentiate who's with the school and who's not with the school," Collins said. "One of the things we talk about with the kids is to let us know if somebody is walking around without a vest on, to let us know right away."
He said the incident was definitely strange, but it's impossible to know what the man's intentions really were.
This week teachers will also be talking to students about the difference between safe adults and "stranger danger," but Collins cautioned that increased security measures aren't necessarily the answer.
"If a predator truly wanted to come on to school grounds, a gate isn't going to stop them," he said. "If they want to climb a fence, they will. It's more important to work on safety education and safe behaviours, rather than encasing them in. We want to make sure they know what safe adults are, what safe adults ask them to do - that nobody [safe] would ever ask them to leave school grounds.
"That's the message we'll be hammering home for them. But if at the end of the day we need to put gates up, we'll put gates up."
Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung confirmed police had been contacted about the incident but they had very limited information.
He said they would be speaking with teachers, students and possibly neighbours in the area.
"Once we know more, we'll decide where to go from there," he said.
