When we leave our children in the care of licensed, certified professionals, we assume they will be kept safe. Although the occasional, intrusive thought may arise, we trust the people we’ve chosen to take care of them. Sadly, things don’t always work out that way. Children sometimes have a way of wandering off.
The adults responsible for them should be vigilant and fast-acting. But when one preschooler left his teachers and his school, his mother learned that they didn’t do all that they could to get him back to safety.
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Ana Maldonado doesn't know what would have happened to her son if he hadn't come home.
Thankfully, the story doesn’t end tragically, but the mother is deeply troubled by the way her son’s preschool handled his disappearance. The 3-year-old boy left his preschool program at the Tukwila Elementary School in Washington state and walked back home, much to to his mother’s shock and confusion. “If he wouldn’t have come home, I wouldn’t even know that he was in the streets,” Maldonado said, according to KGNS.
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His teacher didn't look for him because she didn't want to abandon the other students.
Maldonado’s son Giovanni walked more than 100 yards to his mother’s front door in the middle of the day. Initially, she questioned her son. “I was like, ‘How are you home, why are you here? School isn’t over for another 30 minutes,’” Maldonado said, per KGNS. But she had more in-depth questions for the school district.
Giovanni’s teacher said she lost him when he went back outside to retrieve something he’d lost. She told Maldonado that she didn’t look for him because she didn’t want to disturb the student-teacher ratio.
“Oh, I was broken, when she said that,” Maldonado said, according to the news outlet. “I was like, you would seriously not chase after a 3-year-old?”
The school's alarm was also broken.
Giovanni’s classroom has 18 students and two teachers. When Giovanni fled the school, the alarm, which is supposed to prevent students from leaving campus, was not working. Maldonado said this fact completely broke her heart.
“I’m trusting you, I’m leaving you my kids,” she said. “I’m going to work, I expect them to stay in a safe spot, but yet your protocols and your gated system was not working.”
The district investigated the situation.
In response to Maldonado’s frustration, the school district launched an investigation. Officials also conducted an internal review and assured Maldonado that they are “always working to ensure student safety.”
They may be trying, but the protocols currently in place aren’t working all that well if a 3-year-old can outsmart them.
The district released a statement.
“Immediately following the incident, the district initiated an investigation including an internal review of safety protocols and procedures at Tukwila Elementary. We are committed to working with the parent to ensure her concerns are addressed and to reviewing all aspects of the situation, including staff-to-student ratios, alarm systems, and the actions taken by staff,” the statement provided to KIRO read. “The district has protocols in place to ensure student safety, and we are always striving to improve and learn from incidents like this to better serve our students and families.”
