LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — A father is seeking accountability after his 7-year-old son with autism walked away from Manch Elementary School on Monday undetected.
The boy, who is nonverbal, crossed a street and was wandering around by himself before neighbors found him, according to his father. The father met with school officials on Wednesday and said they showed him surveillance video of what happened.
The father said his son got out of some doors during recess, ran across a parking lot, ran across a street, and wandered around the apartments where he lives.
Father Bryant Jordan picked up his son from Manch Elementary School Wednesday afternoon. Jordan talked to FOX5 about what school officials initially told him Monday after it happened.
“They said he got out, and he got away from the school, and we had to go retrieve him. I said, ‘Is he alright?’ They said, ‘Yeah, he’s fine and everything. He’s fine.’ I said, ‘How far did he get away from the school?’ They said, ‘Well, he never got past the street corner. I said, so he never got on the street.’ They said, ‘No, he never got in the street,’” Jordan said.
Father says school left out details
Jordan said the school left out details during the initial call Monday. He said school officials didn’t tell him they didn’t know right away the boy got out, didn’t tell him his son went past the street corner and crossed the street by himself, and didn’t tell him the boy was wandering around the apartments alone.
Security video from one of Jordan’s neighbors shows the 7-year-old on a sidewalk between apartments walking by himself.
“And that’s when we see our neighbor, our neighbor’s kid, come down the walkway at an unusual time. It’s not like the time when kids come out of school or anything,” Yadata Isaac said.
Isaac says the boy tried to get into his home, but the door was locked. His mom and dad weren’t home at the time.
Isaac’s wife and father-in-law then walked the boy to another side of the building, where she saw school officials, who took the boy back to school.
“He could have been kidnapped by anybody… he could have made it to Craig Road and gotten run over,” Jordan said.
Jordan said he is frustrated with the school but praises his neighbors.
“Because there are still kind people and everything. And if it wasn’t for them, who knows what could have happened,” Jordan said.
Clark County School District provided a statement:
CCSD takes the safety of our students very seriously. Educators follow internal protocols for cases in which students elope from school, including procedures to immediately identify the student’s location, as well as to alert school police and the student’s parents/guardians.
In this case, the school identified that the student had eloped within minutes, and administrators initiated an immediate search for the student. The school is also working with the family and debriefing the situation to prevent similar incidents for this student or any others at the school.
