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About 10 a.m., Drummond’s wife, Jyl, reported him missing to Manassas police. A broadcast was sent statewide, said Sgt. Tim Neumann, a Manassas police spokesman.
The school was closed yesterday for parent-teacher conferences, but officials said counselors will be on hand today.
School officials said yesterday that Drummond usually arrived at school at 6 a.m. to get his administrative work done so he could spend the rest of his time with students.
“He will be remembered by the thousands of students whose lives he touched here at Cedar Point,” Assistant Principal Louis LePore said in a statement. “He was like a big Teddy Bear. He loved children and he loved his work. He brought his best to his job every day. He was a true professional.”
Superintendent Steven L. Walts called Drummond’s death “a tremendous loss.”
“Mike was held in high esteem not only at Cedar Point, but across the school division,” Walts said.
Drummond began working for the district in 1987 as a special education teacher at Yorkshire Elementary School, Prince William schools spokesman Ken Blackstone said.
Drummond went on to work as an assistant principal at Antietam and Potomac View elementary schools and was principal at Occoquan Elementary School when he was appointed to Cedar Point in 2000, Blackstone said.
Sturm, who spoke on behalf of relatives at their request, said Drummond received his doctorate in early childhood development from Virginia Tech and gravitated toward special education and gifted students — “those who were out of the mainstream,” she said.
As a principal, Drummond was not above dressing in costume for a fair or racing a miniature bike for the students’ amusement, Sturm added. “He wasn’t the kind of principal where kids were afraid to be sent to the principal’s office,” she said.
Drummond was also a father of two children, ages 7 and 11, and was constantly talking about how much he loved them, Sturm said. She remembered how Drummond acted right after the birth of his eldest.
“He just kept looking at his little son and saying, ‘You’re my very best friend,’ “ she said.