Morris Schools Reopen As Search For Escaped Inmate Continues

A task force made up U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement officers in eastern Oklahoma is looking for an inmate who escaped during a transport.

It forced one Okmulgee County school district to briefly go on lockdown, but students returned to class Wednesday.

Students and faculty spent the day getting things back to normal after the McClain County sheriff said Skipper Rowland broke out of a transport van and escaped new Dewar.

Okmulgee County investigators believe he then stole a Ford F-350 truck Tuesday afternoon in Morris, causing the school to go on lockdown.

9/6/2017 Related Story: Search For Escaped Inmate Resumes In Okmulgee County

"We weren't gonna send kids home without a parent kinda knowing where their child was," Superintendent Dr. Chris Karch said.

Kids were back in class Wednesday morning and the superintendent said he was in touch with law enforcement to decide whether opening schools was the best call.

"We've not received any information to feel like our school is in any imminent threat or anything like that," Karch said.

When asked if they were concerned going into the day, Karch said, "I guess a little more heightened but anybody who works in the schools, they know that our eyes are always open anyway."

Deputies said Rowland faces drug possession charges.

The truck deputies believe Rowland could be in is described as a red 1999 Ford F-350 with a white feed bin on the back and tag number 743-JNF.