Perth dad's fury as son (5) wanders home from after-school club

Mar 9 2010 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

THE father of a home-alone pupil has blasted procedures at the new Inch View Primary which let his five-year-old son wander off the campus by himself.

And he was critical that it took 40 minutes before staff realised that the Perth pupil was not at the after-school club he should have been attending, and notified his parents that he was missing.

The fuming dad accepts that the school had apologised for the incident and has now changed its procedures, and he said yesterday that he wouldn’t be taking the matter further.

But he and his wife are still haunted by the ‘what if’ scenarios which could have befallen the five-year-old who walked alone from the Glenearn Road school, across the South Inch and busy roads, to his home near Perth bus station.

“My child went missing and it was not until 40 minutes later that we received a call from the school,” said the father yesterday.

“He was meant to go to the after-school club but another pupil told him it was not on.

“So he decided to walk home thinking his mum would be in. but she was at work. Fortunately a neighbour saw him wandering in the street and took him in. He told the neighbour he was going to look for his mum at her work – she works at PRI.

“Goodness knows what could have happened. It’s a mile from the school to his home and he had to cross the South Inch and busy roads. He could have fallen into the boating pond, jumped into a stranger’s car, been knocked down crossing the road. So many awful things could have happened.

“Forty minutes is a long time for the school to realise he was missing, but we are now satisfied that procedures have been reviewed and we are assured it will not happen to another child.

“For a five-year-old to be let out of school without supervision is not right.

“When our son was at Caledonian Road School which has gates, all the children were inside the school grounds until they were picked up. At Inch View the school doors were just opened and all the kids ran out.”

Perth and Kinross Council issued the following statement in response to the incident: “We can confirm that a pupil who was due to attend after-school care on Monday, March 1, did instead leave the school premises and make his way home.

“It quickly became apparent to school staff that the pupil had not attended after-school care, and school procedures were triggered. The pupil’s mother was immediately contacted and the depute head teacher left school to look for the boy, who was located at the home of a neighbour where he was being cared for.

“The safety of all of our school pupils is of utmost importance to Perth and Kinross Council. The school has offered a full and frank apology to the mother of the pupil involved.

“An incident report has been completed and a full review of procedures is underway in an effort to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again.”