The news is terrifying for a parent....and a million time worse for someone like me who obsesses over the safety of their children. Safety, in general. A 7 year old INSIDE his school went missing on Friday. His school is across the river from us. Not far at all. Not like it matters how far or near, my heart stops whenever a child goes missing. But this child...this child was inside his school building.
Inside his school. HOW? How does this happen? I like to (pretend) think that Kelton is safe once I watch him walk from my car and inside the school door. I like to (pretend) think that he is 100% safe until he steps from the school bus in the afternoon. I have placed him, with all the trust I can muster, into the care of the school district. And now? Now I have a new terror to obsess over.
Maybe we should have a bar code scanner installed in schools and children have to pass through them on their ways in and out of every door. Yes, I realize that means they would have to be coded. I'm ok with that.
For heaven sakes - we chip our pets! Newborns are tagged into a security system in hospitals. Shouldn't there be a system in place to make sure our children stay safe at school?
Please let them find this little boy safe and healthy. And soon.
6 comments:
Oh God, that is so terrifying.
Casey, his step mother said he was inside of school...no one saw him....are we sure she really dropped him off? Sorry but I don't trust anyone.....If this is true and she really dropped him off then yes this is very sad.....
It is terrifying. He's been on my mind since Friday. I have to admit, it made school drop-off a bit harder for me today (and yes, I realize that's a bit irrational..).
I know - these situations are always terrifying - but this one is so close to home in too many respects. This one has really has upset me, too. The world should not work this way. I really hope someone that loves him has taken him and that he will be found safe soon.
I've come to learn first hand that we can't take for granted that our children ARE automatically safe in these situations.
It shouldn't have happened. It was a real hard lesson. We thought we were being safe. It was pure negligence on their part.
We have definitely changed our routine. I find it totally fascinating that other parents that were very close to the situation haven't changed their ways one bit.
After reading more about this... it troubles me that no one at the school notified the parents that the boy wasn't in his classroom. It shouldn't have taken 6+ hours to make this discovery. I can't imagine how these folks are coping!
Parents... please know your schools attendance policy... know when they take attendance... know what their procedures are if your child isn't accounted for.
Our school officially records attendance twice a day. Sure, the teachers unofficially account for their students numerous times throughout the day as they are coming and going from the classroom.
But if a student isn't there after the bell in the morning AND the parent hasn't contacted the school... the school (not the teacher!) contacts the parents pretty darn immediately. Same thing with the afternoon attendance!
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