Retired RCMP patrol school grounds in Merritt

Students returned to Diamond Vale Elementary School in Merritt, B.C., on Wednesday morning amid added security provided by retired RCMP officers, three days after three young siblings who were students there were found killed in their home.

Nicola-Similkameen School District assistant superintendent Wendy Hyer said it's important for students to get back to a normal life, and teams of counsellors are on loan to the district from the Penticton and Surrey school districts to help the children cope with the recent events.

"We are grieving the loss of three of our students and our sympathies do go out to their family, but we are happy to be back in school today to essentially try to get some structure and normalcy back into our students' lives, and to provide parents, and students and staff with some support," Hyer said on Wednesday.

The school is being guarded by RCMP officers and four security guards, who are former RCMP members. But the parents of 59 children — out of a total school population of 205 — decided to keep their children home today.

Police are still hunting for Allan Dwayne Schoenborn, the father of the two boys and one girl whose bodies were discovered by their mother on Sunday.

Coroner's inquest called

Meanwhile, B.C.'s coroner has ordered an inquest into the events in Merritt.

Chief coroner Terry Smith said a number of issues need to be explored, and an inquest is a way for different agencies to share information and work to prevent a future tragedy.

Questions are being raised about why a justice of the peace ordered Schoenborn freed last week after he had an apparent confrontation at the children's school, and why it took police 22 hours to identify the man as a suspect and notify the community that he could be dangerous.

Schoenborn — who was estranged from the children's mother, Darcie Clarke — was arrested three times in the week before the children were slain and was under a restraining order to limit contact with the mother.