Man Taking Photos at Marin School Meant No Harm

A man who prompted school alerts after he was spotted taking photos of students at Marin Elementary School in Albany turned out to be visitor from China taking pictures of his granddaughter's school to send back home, the school principal said Friday.

Here is a message from Prinicipal Alexia Ritchie distributed on the school e-tree:

To the Marin and greater Albany community:

This afternoon (10/18/13) one of our teachers spotted a gentleman fitting the description of the man taking pictures of students at Marin. This individual was once again taking pictures, this time towards the front of Marin School on Santa Fe. Albany PD responded immediately, questioned the man and determined that this was the same individual reported by the students in previous weeks. It turns out that he is visiting his family from China, has a granddaughter that attends Marin and was taking pictures as an amateur photographer to send back home. He was very apologetic when we told him that this was not allowed and he vowed to stop this immediately. The student descriptions of this individual were extremely accurate and the vigilance demonstrated by the community and Albany PD was outstanding. Good work Marin!!

Alexia Ritchie
Principal