A MUM was left horrified after her six-year-old son managed to escape from school and walk 15 minutes home in the middle of the day without staff noticing.
The mum says her husband called her at Monday lunchtime to say their little boy had come home from Whitleigh Primary School in Plymouth after “pressing a button” and leaving.
1
The headteacher of the school has since apologised for the escape, adding that it was unacceptable, Plymouth Live reports.
The mother, who wishes not to be identified, stated that her son would have walked across four roads to get home.
“My husband called me and said that our son had just walked in the door.
“I was at university at the time, so I wasn’t there. My husband was there watching our youngest.
Our eldest was just about to walk through the door by himself as they were about to leave for the shop. He claimed that all he needed to do was push a button, and he went.
“He would’ve had to have crossed four different roads to get home. It usually takes 10 to 15 minutes to walk there.”
The mother, panicked, said that she ran home and her husband drove the little boy back from school.
She explained that her husband called and asked to check on the progress of the child.
He said that they would check, but that he didn’t have to because he was home. It was the first time they had heard of it.
“All I care about is other children. Any child could do that, they could walk out at any time. They could walk out.”
Gavin Summerfield, headteacher of Whitleigh Community Primary School said: “We treat the safeguarding of our children as an absolute priority so clearly Monday’s incident is not acceptable and we have apologised to the child’s family.
“In light of the incident, we reviewed our shared facility security and made other changes to prevent similar situations from happening again.
“We have referred the incident to the relevant authorities and are continuing to work with the family.”
We pay for your stories! Are you a Central Recorder Online journalist? Send us an email at [email protected], or call 0207 882 4368. We also pay for video. Click here to upload yours.