ST. LOUIS — It’s every parent’s worst fear -- going to pick up their child from school, but they’re not there.
It happened to a grandmother in the Ferguson-Florissant School District on Thursday.
"Terrified. Absolutely terrified. She could be anywhere in the city of St. Louis." That's how Roxanne Jones describes the moment she went to pick up her five-year-old granddaughter from Walnut Grove Elementary School on Thursday and she wasn't there.
"Sat in the line an hour, got up to get her. She was nowhere to be found," Jones said. "I asked the teacher, 'where is she?' She said 'we put her on the daycare van.' I said 'no, you couldn't have. I just passed them and she wasn't on there.'"
Jones said teachers searched for the kindergartner for almost two hours before they found her. It turns out, she was put into another van and taken to a daycare she doesn't go to.
School officials said the mix-up was likely due to restructuring within the district and new teachers. Kevin Hampton, a spokesperson for the Ferguson-Florissant School District, said: "We tried to keep that communication clear between school and home, and we realize that wasn't perfect yesterday. But what we have done today is to make sure that students are going to be getting on the bus, double-checked that they're getting on the right bus.”
Jones said the school assured her it wouldn't happen again. But she said it's not enough.
"It's a big concern," she said. "If it's happened once how are you going to reassure me it's not going to happen again."
School officials said additional staff has been added to all buildings and buses in the district.