Vancouver Public Schools sent out two “stranger danger” alerts Friday after receiving reports of two students being approached or followed by strangers as they walked to and from their respective schools.
One alert was sent out for Walnut Grove Elementary School and Gaiser Middle School. It says that at about 4:05 p.m. Thursday, a woman reportedly driving an older white van with whited-out windows followed a Gaiser student as she walked home from the bus stop at Northeast 58th Street and Northeast 76th Avenue.
“The student made several maneuvers to attempt to elude the van; however, it continued to follow,” the alert says.
The driver of the van and the girl did not speak to each other, and the van stayed in the area for five minutes before taking off.
Vancouver police were notified, and a report was filed.
A second alert was sent out for the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. It states that at about 9:15 a.m. Friday, a man driving a car contacted a female student as she was walking to VSAA in the 3100 block of Main Street. He asked the student if she needed a ride to school. The student said no, and the man left the area.
Both the student and VSAA notified Vancouver police, and a report was filed.
The alert involving a white van is the second in about two weeks.
The school district sent out another stranger danger alert Feb. 20 after a man tried to abduct a girl walking to school with her father. That alert said the girl and her father were walking to Walnut Grove Elementary School about 8:30 a.m. when the attempted abduction happened.
School officials said the man was noticed by the parent, prompting the man to get into a white van and drive off. He appeared to be in his mid-20s to early 30s, between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing around 180 to 200 pounds.
The van in the first incident was described in police reports as a white work van while the report for the recent event described the involved vehicle as a “white bread truck style van,” Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said in an email.
“(It’s) unknown if they are connected since we didn’t locate any vehicle,” Kapp said.
“We are aware there have been two similar reported incidents, but at this time we have no suspect information or vehicle identified other than (a) white van, and yesterday’s had a female driver,” she said.
