Campus Security Beefed Up After Abduction : Kidnaping: School takes extra measures, including counseling for anxious students, after a woman briefly held a 9-year-old boy at gunpoint.

Administrators at Van Buren Elementary School stepped up campus security on Thursday and offered counseling services to students unnerved by the brief abduction of 9-year-old David Christie, who was held at gunpoint by a woman.

Sheila Faye Reed, 30, of Yorba Linda, who lives with her mother a block from the grade school, was scheduled to be arraigned today in Municipal Court in Fullerton on charges of kidnaping, assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a .22-caliber handgun on school property.

She was arrested Wednesday afternoon for allegedly grabbing David and taking him from the school to an adjacent park.

The 20-minute standoff ended peacefully when David persuaded her to let him go, police said. The semiautomatic pistol that was confiscated from Reed was registered to her, Placentia Police Lt. Chuck Babcock said.

Reacting to a number of phone calls from parents on Thursday, school officials posted five extra administrators and teachers on the school grounds during recesses and kept an eye on the park, from where Reed apparently entered the school, Principal Ken Lorge said.

“It’s just to make sure the kids know they’re safe and everything’s fine,” Lorge said, adding that David returned to class on Thursday.

The extra staffing will continue at least through today and possibly next week, Lorge said. He said, however, that the school has no plans to erect additional fencing around the small campus to prevent a recurrence of the incident.

About a third of the Placentia Unified School District schools have public parks next to them, Supt. James Fleming said.

“It’s just not feasible to fence them. . . . There’s no way to completely prevent people from getting on campus,” Fleming said.

Shortly after Reed was taken into custody, six school counselors were sent to the grade school to listen to anxious students and calm their jangled nerves, Lorge said. The counselors were also available all day Thursday.

“They want to know why someone would do that,” Lorge said.

“A lot of them were nervous, as you’d expect,” Lorge said. “But my general impression is they are handling it pretty well.”

In fact, David was a celebrity of sorts, retelling the incident to classmates all day long.

“David said that he didn’t even have time to play today because people kept asking him to tell them what happened,” Lorge said.

Meanwhile, police released little information about Reed, who was being held Thursday without bail in Orange County Jail.

Babcock said that investigators on Thursday still were trying to determine a motive. Reed apparently does not know David or any member of his family and has no criminal record, Babcock said.

Reed, a part-time Disneyland employee since 1987, also had a clean employment record, said one personnel officer who asked not to be identified.

Several longtime neighbors said that they were shocked by the news of the abduction, and described Reed as a friendly person who liked children.

“She has always been friendly to my kids,” said next-door neighbor Kim Zamarion. “I know she wouldn’t hurt that boy.”

Kathy Ostrling, another neighbor, agreed.

“She is all-around super nice,” Ostrling said. “She is not violent. Maybe she just needs some help.”

Times staff writer Michael Ashcraft contributed to this report.