LIBERTY CITY, Fla. (WSVN) — A normal day turned to panic when a mother went to pick her son up from school in Liberty City, but the 5-year-old was nowhere to be found.
Shywyona Carson visited Holmes Elementary School, Wednesday, to pick up her son, Jermaine, but was terrified when school employees were unable to locate him.
“I said, ‘I’m looking for my son, Jermaine Carson.’ No Jermaine Carson,” she said.
Carson said school employees sent her to different spots on campus where she was told she’d find her boy, but he wasn’t there.
Staff members began to page each other as the day concluded, but Carson said more than half an hour went by without any sign of Jermaine.
“‘This can’t be happening. This is a dream.’ All I could think about it is, ‘Somebody snatched my son,'” said Carson as she began to cry.
She said Jermaine had a substitute teacher that day, but that others at the school were at a complete loss for where the child could’ve been.
“‘Where’s my son?’ That’s the only thing I could think about. ‘Where’s my son?'” Carson said. “And I told the officers — I’m like, ‘Listen, y’all will be putting me in handcuffs soon because somebody better tell me where my son is.'”
Jermaine was later spotted walking alone off school grounds.
“A police officer brings my son to the front of the school, saying he was on 71st Street and Northwest 12th Avenue, walking,” she said.
After the City of Miami Police officer returned the child to school, Carson said the relieved employees apologized to the her. “‘We apologize, this won’t happen again. We sorry, we sorry,'” said Carson.
Police confirmed finding Jermaine, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools released a statement on the matter that said, “A misunderstanding after school today resulted in this unfortunate incident. We are conducting a thorough review of the school’s dismissal procedures to ensure this does not happen again.”
Carson told 7News that her son had left through a gate on the other side of the campus and was on his way to a relative’s house.
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