In the week preceding Halloween, parents had more to be worried about than costumes and pumpkin carving.

On Tuesday, Oct. 27 between 2:15 and 2:30 in the afternoon, a man entered the parking lot of North Hill Elementary in Des Moines during the students' recess. According to school officials, he attempted to hand out candy and a CD to students. The students were separated from the man by a fence.

A playground monitor told the man to leave and he walked away without any resistance and school administration contacted Highline School District security, which searched for the man but did not find him. The school did not notify the Des Moines police of the incident until a little over two hours later at 4:42 p.m.

Parents are outraged that the school did not call police immediately.

Chuck Duff, whose daughter goes to North Hill, said that he had spoken to the principal around 4:15 p.m. to express his concern. The police had still not been called at that time.

He said Principal Nancy Melius told him that there was no clear cut policy on how to handle such an incident.

Highline School District spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers said that procedure was followed but there was no set requirement to call police right away. She said that actions were decided on a case-by-case basis in situations such as this.

Duff's wife, Jennifer, e-mailed other parents, which snowballed into angry email exchanges that resulted in Principal Melius sending out a letter to parents.

The letter explained the incident and said that counselors had spoken to students who had been at recess when the incident occurred.

"(She) determined that none of the children had eaten any candy. She re-taught the importance of not talking to strangers or eating candy/food without your parents' permission."

"I want to commend staff-especially our playground monitor - for taking quick and appropriate action to keep students safe. At no time did the man step onto the playground," Melius said in the letter.

In an interview, Rogers said that security guards had informed North Hill staff that "they did not feel threat level was such that police needed to be called immediately."

She pointed out that the security officers called to the scene have law enforcement backgrounds, "so they understand and know what to do (in a situation such as this)."

Duff, the concerned father, said is now "very concerned" for his daughter's safety at the school.

"I'm willing to kill for my kid," he said. "If I'm willing to do that, calling the police should be a minor thing (school administrators) are willing to do."

He said that schools should have a concrete set of procedures of how to deal with similar incidents instead of dealing with them on a case-by-case basis.

He also said he commended the Des Moines police for constantly being at the school after being notified.

Commander John O'Leary of the Des Moines Police Department said that it was critical for an incident such as this to be reported immediately to police.

"This might have been a benign incident or might not have been a benign incident (but) we ask these types of things to be reported to us immediately via 911," he said.

According to the report filed, the man was a black male in his 50s with an Afro, wearing reflective sunglasses, black jacket, black pants and carrying a CD player.

Any additional information can be reported to the Des Moines Police Department at 206-878-3301.