If you’ve ever dropped your kid off at school and trusted they’d be safe until pickup, TikToker @gwynough’s story will make your heart drop straight into your stomach.
So, they dropped off their autistic five-year-old son at school early in the morning, so he could have time to eat breakfast there. What started as a normal morning drop-off turned into a nightmare because it turns out that the school lost their child the previous day, and no one thought to tell them.
Their son’s kindergarten teacher was there at breakfast, and when she spotted @gwynough, she rushed over and apologized for not calling last night. Of course, @gwynough was confused and asked the teacher what was wrong.
“Apparently, yesterday at breakfast—so I’m finding out about the situation a full 24 hours after it happened—my son went missing,” @gwynough said.
“The teachers [who] were on breakfast duty monitoring, of which his teacher was one of them, were not paying attention, and this five-year-old managed to leave the cafeteria, and he went through the whole school.”
The cafeteria was in the gymnasium, which is separated from the school itself. After an unknown amount of time, teachers found @gwynough’s son in the bathroom with another child. He was not wearing any pants or underwear.
The bathroom was located by the front doors of the school. In order for him to get there, he would’ve had to leave the cafeteria, walk across a courtyard, and enter a door that was supposed to be locked at all times.
“He got to the other side of the school, the complete opposite end, without a single faculty member or teacher stopping him,” @gwynough stated.
Their son’s teacher did not report this incident, so it’s unclear whether the child that @gwynough’s son was found with was also a special needs kid or just another kid in his class.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
The teacher told @gwynough that she would now file a report, even though the incident had occurred the day before.
They went to talk to the principal, and she hadn’t heard anything about the situation because the teachers had not told her about it.
The kindergarten teacher wasn’t even the one who found @gwynough’s son in the bathroom. At some point, she realized he was in there and reportedly sent the school security guard to retrieve him because she refused to go into the bathroom.
The security guard’s desk is right outside those restrooms, so he should’ve been around to intervene. He also did not report the incident to the principal.
TikToker @gwynough pointed out that it was lucky their child was with another child, and not an older student or adult. The children also could’ve run over to where the buses were dropping off kids or into the busiest street in the city.
At this point, there is nothing @gwynough can do but wait for the principal to conduct an internal investigation and consider taking legal action.
Hopefully, the school will take safety and supervision more seriously than ever before.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
