NEAR OAKLAND PARK, Fla. (WSVN) — Two mothers are speaking out after, they said, their children were left unattended after the first day of school in Broward County.
Michelle Gibson went to pick up her two children, 5-year-old Honesty and 6-year-old Joshua, from North Andrews Gardens Elementary near Oakland Park, Wednesday.
Gibson said because of her children’s young age, she would never allow them to walk home from school.
“Anything could happen,” Gibson said.
However, when she arrived at the campus, she could not find her two children.
“We started looking around the back of the school, the side of the school,” Gibson said. “We found my children four blocks away, down walking through the streets towards Andrews. They were holding hands. They were walking.”
Gibson said she was told the principal walked the two children to the school’s gate and let them walk home from there. However, a letter from the principal said that kindergartners and first graders who walk home must be released to an adult.
“They could have been picked up by a stranger,” Gibson said. “They could’ve gotten lost. They could’ve been hit by a car.”
The two children walking alone was not the only transportation snafu on the first day of school in Broward County.
Kelly Novins said school officials at Quiet Waters Elementary in Deerfield Beach put her daughter, 8-year-old third grader Antoinette Baggatta, on the wrong bus at the end of the day.
“No big deal. It happens. First day,” Novins said.
However, Novins was not as forgiving two hours later. She said she had been told the driver would bring her daughter back to the school, but by 4:30 p.m., Antoinette had not appeared at the school.
The driver instead dropped her off at her morning bus stop near busy Military Trail and Lock Road off Hillsboro Boulevard.
“Then, when she got off the bus, the bus driver just left, leaving her in an abandoned parking lot with nobody around, nobody near her,” Kovins said.
Antoinette then started walking, and she walked three miles down Hillsboro towards her great grandparents’ home.
“I had to walk pretty far, but it was actually really hard,” Antoinette said.
She made it to the home, and relatives called her mother.
“Why would you leave an 8-year-old just like that? I don’t understand why, so shame on Broward County,” Kovins said.
The county told 7News the safety of the students is of utmost importance.
A district spokeswoman released a statement that read in part, “School, District and Transportation Department administrators are reviewing all of the circumstances involved with this incident to ensure a similar situation does not happen in the future.”
As for Honesty and her big brother Joshua who were left to walk home on their own?
“While our office cannot confirm the details as presented … particularly due to student privacy laws, school leadership and District staff are working the family involved regarding this situation to ensure all proper dismissal protocols are followed,“ the spokeswoman said.
Both mothers said that at the end of the day, what they want is a full explanation.
The school district said they are looking into both cases.
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