If he was absent from his class at 9:00, what is the protocol—I imagine word goes to the front office, and the front office makes either makes calls to the home to inquire, IF the parent hasn’t already made the call their child will be absent. (Many years since my kids were in school, but I thought it worked that way, so, JMO)
But, upthread, it said the phones were down that morning.
Then, Shamattawa is a fly-in community, 2 hours from Winnipeg.
BUT, then the Search & Rescue team got delayed because the plane was down and they had to look for a charter to fly them instead.
Just a series of unfortunate events, it seems, prevented a quicker response.
JMO