ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Parents of a five-year-old student at RCSD School 15 are asking for dismissal procedures to be revised, after they say their child was left to wander by himself outside.
John Schmidt tells News 8 he pulled up to the school Wednesday and couldn’t find his son right away. After a brief discussion with one of the staff members —who also didn’t know where the boy was— Schmidt says he looked down the street and found him by himself on the side of the road.
The boy’s mother says this isn’t the first time.
“On November the 29th there was also an incident where his father came up to the school and he could not find [him] at dismissal,” Candice Booth said. “They were radioing all over the school, and I probably say after about 5-7 minutes they were able to find him and determine that staff was not properly watching him, and he went to another room to be called out.”
The Rochester City School District responded in a statement Thursday, saying:
The District has been reviewing yesterday’s incident and the school Number 15 administration has been reviewing dismissal procedures. The school principal has spoken to the child’s father, reviewed dismissal plans, and determined a teacher will personally escort the student from the dismissal area directly to his parents going forward. The school will maintain contact with the parents to ensure communication avenues remain open.
There was another occurrence with this student earlier in the school year, and a change to the dismissal location caused the confusion. The student was accustomed to being picked up in our Pre-K program area, and staff redirected him to his new dismissal area. Staff remained with him until his parents arrived. His dismissal was delayed, and the student was never unsupervised.