Has someone been placing used children's coats on a elementary school fence the school name is Lincoln School and the person doing that is Earl Hutchins

1. What the reporting actually documents

A social post describes fifteen winter coats found hanging on a chain‑link fence outside Lincoln Elementary with the principal alerting police after discovery, presenting an immediate, on‑the‑ground claim that coats appeared at that school ^[1]. Separately, a local blog recounts a longer, community‑oriented narrative in which a teenager named Kayla bought and hung coats on “the same fence, by the elementary school,” inspires others, and references an evolving tradition called “Earl’s Fence,” naming Earl Hutchins in the family/community timeline and noting his death ^[2]. Those are the two specific pieces of reporting provided: one is a short social post about coats found at Lincoln Elementary ^[1] and the other is a retrospective, anecdotal blog history tying coats on fences to a community practice and to the Hutchins name ^[2].

2. Where reporting supports — and where it does not — the claim that “Earl Hutchins” placed coats

No provided source supplies contemporaneous, first‑hand documentation (police report, eyewitness statement, photo timestamped to the act, or an admission) that an individual named Earl Hutchins personally placed coats on the Lincoln Elementary fence; the social post reports the presence of coats at the school but does not name who hung them ^[1], and the blog offers a narrative covering multiple fences and actors over time that references Earl Hutchins in the community story rather than documenting him hanging coats at that specific school on a specific date ^[2]. The obituary index and genealogy pages associated with the Hutchins surname do not corroborate an action of placing coats and instead are general name records or unrelated family‑history material ^{[5] [3]}.

3. Plausible readings, alternate explanations and possible agendas in the sources

One plausible reading consistent with the two pieces of reporting is that a grassroots pattern—individuals hanging donated coats on fences in multiple locations—has circulated in the community and that the Hutchins name became attached to that practice over time, creating a local legend called “Earl’s Fence” ^[2]. Alternatively, the blog’s retrospective storytelling may compress different actors and moments into a compact narrative that attributes community momentum to a family name without contemporaneous verification, while the social post highlights an isolated incident at Lincoln Elementary without attribution ^{[1] [2]}. The blog format and social post formats both carry implicit incentives: blogs may favor coherent origin stories that readers find moving ^[2] and social posts prioritize immediate, shareable visuals or anecdotes that do not always include sourcing ^[1].

4. What would be needed to answer definitively and the responsible conclusion from the available reporting

To conclude definitively that “Earl Hutchins” hung coats on Lincoln Elementary’s fence would require primary evidence—police reports naming a suspect, school or district statements identifying the person who left the coats, dated photographs or video showing the act with identification, or a first‑person admission from an identified Earl Hutchins—which none of the provided sources supply ^{[1] [2] [5]}. Based on the material at hand, the responsible conclusion is that coats were reported on a Lincoln Elementary fence ^[1] and that a community narrative links coat‑hanging to a tradition associated with the Hutchins name ^[2], but there is no direct documentation in these sources proving that a person named Earl Hutchins personally placed the coats at that specific school.