A spokesperson for the school district says Ayanna's teacher
thought a child may have been missing, so the staff checked every classroom, and
thought all of the children were accounted for.
The girl had been in the gymnasium playing with other students when
the teacher observed a door closing. The teacher immediately ran outside to look around, but saw no one. The teacher then checked the restrooms and a custodial closet near the gym, but found no one. At that point, all classrooms were checked by staff.
http://www.wpxi.com/news/27378746/detail.html
Pittsburgh Public Schools said in a statement that
teachers checked every room in the building and did not think the girl had left.
http://www.wtae.com/r/27390041/detail.html
What if that door closing had been an abductor grabbing this little girl?
How do you "think" you have all the kids? Is there so many kids you can't keep track? Do you not go down a list and say "Anna, Bobby, Cathy, David, Ethan, George....?"
If you checked all classrooms and bathrooms and everything... did you take the time to simply check the individual children? You didn't know WHICH child was missing, or you would have realized there WAS a child missing.
LadyL - I trust you won't take offense to my using your post... since you put it so well.
I agree with your post completely.
Which is
precisely why my children are home schooled. :innocent:
Well, part of the reason.
It was partly the
academics... I have an 7 year old who is
dyslexic... and reading independently (the Boxcar Children series for example) at the moment.
It was partly the
expectations... I have an 8 year old who has Down syndrome. She reads, she writes, she does math, she knows about the Presidents, the solar system... This child can manipulate anyone and teachers simply can't
believe she is that smart.
My 7 year old with dyslexia also has other issues and literally, cannot be left unsupervised. Period. I cannot shower unless there is someone here. If she were in school, she would
have to be watched closer. What happened in this case would be completely unacceptable. I cannot expect anyone to do that, which is why she is home schooled.
It really came down to the attitude.
People are going to make mistakes.
I do understand and accept that.
Problem is... this is my children's life and future here. My child doesn't have self preservation. She doesn't have that part of her brain working right. Just like an 18 month old child will walk out into traffic, so will my 7 year old.
I will make EVERY effort to ensure that doesn't happen. A teacher is never going to care as much as a parent. In this case, the teacher didn't even know the kids well enough to realize that specific student was missing. That is just sad to me.
That was the deciding factor for me. If I could find a teacher who CARED about my kids enough to KNOW them... who would
watch my 7 year old and
believe in my 8 year old... I'd put my kids in school in a heartbeat. :twocents:
it's scary but I don't think pulling the kid from school is the right answer
humans are not perfect and mistakes are going to happen and we can safeguard till the cows come home and mistakes are still going to happen and accidents will occur and predators will still find a way to get at kids
the school is installing an alarm and probably reviewing safety measures with all staff and unless they have a history of incidents, I don't know what more we can expect
I did the same thing when I was a child ... although that was different times ...