Classes Canceled At Grade School After Female Custodian Attacked

Tue., June 10, 1997

Associated Press

An elementary school here was closed Monday while Pierce County sheriff’s deputies investigated an early-morning attack on a custodian.

Her assailant, a man in his 30s who appeared at the school at 5:30 a.m., first asked for “Mary in the front office,” said spokesman Curt Benson with the Pierce County sheriff’s department. There is no such person at McAlder Elementary School, Benson said.

The man then pulled a ski mask over his face and went after the custodian. She fled the building and they struggled. She knocked a knife out of his hands and ran to a nearby house, where she called for help.

Her assailant remained at large, Benson said. A tracking dog was unable to find the man, he said.

The custodian, Kim Oles, was treated for scrapes at a hospital.

The school canceled Monday classes for its 550 students, but will reopen today, an official said.

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