Either that, or LE decided that the odds were very heavily against an abduction by a stranger, and that keeping the public from panicking and the kids in school was important.
I would not have sent my kids back to that school after Kyron was abducted, though. I wouldn't send them there this school year, until the case has been solved and I fully believe that LE has arrested all of the criminal(s) who were involved.
I wouldn't send my kids back, either, especially not right after.
LE would have been better served, and the community better served, IMHO, not to have made such a very very strong statement. They could have said something like this: "At this point, we do not believe that our children are in danger from someone seeking to take more than one child. However, summer is soon upon us. As always, with your children outdoors and participating in various activities, we urge you to be especially vigilant. Make sure you know who's watching children at play. Make sure you talk to your children about strangers, and cars coming up too close. Call us immediately at 911 if you or your child sees someone who concerns you.
As a community, we can and will protect our children, and it does take all of us. We've spent time with school officials and they understnd the need for special vigilance as the school year closes out. To that end, we'll station a community service officer at Skyline. Anyone in that area, student, teacher, neighbor, friend, or family member, who has a concern or remembers something new from June 4 that may pertain to Kyron's disappearance, should talk to that officer."
And yes, IMHO, they should have put at least a liasion officer at the school to establish presence, to induce an extra feeling of security. And, to give a familiar presence that people would feel comfortable talking to after a few days. They could rotate 2 officers. *
They so dropped the ball on this. And that "don't worry" flat statement with absolutely nothing else attached sent a signal that they had their target in their gunsights. If that's not true, and they were looking at various possibiities, they created their own problems with public perception with that statement and then the immediate public focus on TH.
They shot themselves in both feet, IMHO. And I hope they didn't really really damage the investigation.
*When I was a child in upstate NY, unless urgently needed otherwise, a police officer followed school buses home in rural areas. And it was multi-agency--sometimes a highway patrol if a local officer was busy. And, in town we had a police officer who helped traffic control--including kids walking across the street--near the school. I still remember that wonderful man, who we all called Slug. He watched over us. Not only that, he was comfortable, part of the normal environment, and people, even kids, could tell him anything. Great deterrence. Somewhere in heaven, there's a Slug, and I hope he knows "Banana Nose" and no doubt many of his other kids thank him and still remember him with love.