ALTON, Ill. -- A young woman kidnapped from an Alton school bus stop in 1998 was shocked last weekend to see online that her kidnapper is running for a school board seat in California after undergoing psychiatric treatment.
"I'm upset. A person who kidnapped little kids shouldn't be around kids every day," said Shairetha Allison, 26, of Alton, regarding Alvina Riley Sheeley, 71, of Fairfield, Calif.
"I can't believe it," Allison said. "How can she make decisions for a school when she kidnapped kids? She shouldn't be allowed to sit on a seat after she did that. She never apologized to me or my little sister."
Out of curiosity, Allison said she periodically checks Sheeley's name online. She said she called her mother Sunday night when she saw Sheeley was trying to get elected to a school board.
Allison, who was 14 years old at the time, said she can't forget Sheeley, what happened -- or what could have happened, especially now that she is a mother of three.
"I can't say I'm completely over it, or I wouldn't Google" Sheeley's name, Allison said.
Immediately after the incident, Allison said other children taunted her, and youths would open their car doors and tease that they were "kidnapping" her.
"I was the one people teased about it; they thought it was funny," Allison said.
Sheeley, a former teacher for 22 years, is one of eight candidates vying for four seats on the Fairfield-Suisun Unified District Governing Board in the San Francisco Bay area in the Nov. 8 election.
Sheeley was living in Fairfield and had taken a leave of absence from her job teaching Spanish at a high school when she came to Alton and abducted four girls on March 3, 1998.
Sheeley originally had tried to kidnap brother and sister Steven Copenhaver and Shashika Elliott, then 9 and 13, on March 2, 1998, but they escaped. They were the children of single mother Diana Copenhaver, now Diana Haynes, 45, of Alton. Sheeley had asked Copenhaver to turn over custody of the children to her so she could give them a better life, but their mother refused.
The next day, Sheeley kidnapped Shairetha and her sister Whitney, then 10, and two 11-year-old girls from an Alton school bus stop at Central Avenue and Pearl Street, also ostensibly to give them a "better life." Sheeley previously lived in Alton and graduated from Alton High School in 1958, but she did not know the girls.
The girls alerted personnel that they were kidnap victims at a car rental business outside Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, and authorities arrested Sheeley.
After her arrest, U.S. District Judge Gerald B. Cohn ordered Sheeley to undergo mental evaluations. Her public defender and the U.S. Attorney's Office then worked out a plea agreement whereby she was sent to the Federal Medical Center in Carswell, Calif., for treatment of her mental illness.
Sheeley was released after a June 21, 2000, hearing in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, and served no prison time. Her California psychologist testified for two hours that Sheeley had recovered from her illness and was not a threat to the public because of her ongoing treatments and care and medication.
One of the conditions of her release was that Sheeley be under the care of her son, Kirk, in Vacaville, Calif. She also had to report every 60 days to the U.S. Probation Office, Eastern District of California, which monitored her medication.
She was discharged from the Probation Office supervision and a psychiatrist in April 2008.
Her teaching certificate remains revoked, according to an article in the Fairfield (Calif.) Daily Republic. The article also says a judge ruled in her favor in 2002, allowing her to live alone. Sheeley is retired from managing two shoe stores in Fairfield.
Fairfield-Suisun district voters are aware of Sheeley's criminal history from media reports, which prompted questions about her eligibility to serve on the board. A Solano County election official determined she is eligible, however, because Sheeley was not convicted of a felony and is not on felony parole. She unsuccessfully ran for City Council in 1997, before the kidnappings.
She told a Daily Republic reporter that she had been under "mental duress" when she took the Alton children. The story quotes Sheeley: "I believe what I did was wrong. I accept the responsibility for what I did. I meant no harm to anybody."
She also told the reporter that she continues taking medication for her mental illness, "which leaves little chance of recidivism.
"I'm sorry I did it. The counseling that I received and the medical care helped me to understand why I did what I did," she is quoted as saying.
A reporter was unable to reach Sheeley for comment on Wednesday.
According to Sheeley's website (www.alvinasheeley.com) and Facebook page, she has taught at the elementary, middle and high school levels, coached girls sports and was a school athletic director. She directed summer school programs and worked with homebound students. She has bachelor's and master's degrees.
Shairetha and Whitney's mother, Felecia Spiller McMurray, 45, of Godfrey, share her elder daughter's worries about Sheeley.
"If they're (demonstrating) for her to have that job, they should stop, think and put themselves in our position," McMurray said. "You don't forget about that."
She said she did not know Sheeley and only saw her twice -- when police brought her to Alton City Jail and in federal court.
McMurray said after her daughters were kidnapped, she purposely took a night-shift job, which she worked for five years.
"I wanted to make sure I put them on the bus each morning, and I would be there when they got off the bus. You don't ever forget. You are always thinking about it if they are late," she said. "I wanted to know where they were, who they were with. There is no way possible you can understand how you feel. Almost every single day, I talk to my children, and the last thing I say to them is, 'Keep your trust in God and, I love you.'
"Through the grace of God, he brought us through this. My heart goes out to all the kids who were kidnapped."
She said the family was promised counseling but never received it.
"We were on our own," she said. "We dealt with it the best we could."
McMurray said Whitney, 21, doesn't remember much about the kidnapping.
Haynes also said she doesn't think Sheeley should serve on a school board.
"I don't think she is capable of it because of what happened," Haynes said. "She tried to kidnap my kids and then kidnapped the other kids. I don't think she should be in the education business."
She said her children, now 24 and 20, still are bothered when they think about nearly being kidnapped.
Copyright 2011 - The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
