If he went to pick up his child 15 minutes before school was out, students who ride buses were already in the hallway moving to the buses. With most of VISD elementaries the Kindergarten classrooms are within the same building as the office so that young children do not have to go outside the building to get to the office. Also I do not know of any elementary schools that release a student to an adult without an ID, unless the principal okays it. Even Howell MS would not release students without verifiying the identity of the person picking up the child. Because of the "high traffic" right before the bell rings most elementary schools ask that you do not try to check your students out the last 30 minutes of the day. Please understand this sub and all of those involved feel bad about this accident/mistake but do not aasume that VISD teachers are "unfeeling or withdrawn".

It amazes me that few people are surprised that a new-to-school 5 year old is walking the hallway with no supervision. I don't let mine wander places alone. What if he had gone out a door and down the street? How did his name get crossed off the office list if he wandered onto a bus? Think about if you went to pick up your 5 yo and the people who are responsible have no idea where he is. They tell you he has already left with you. I would have been a crazed parent too. And I think once the father knew he was safe he felt ok to wait and file the report. And kinda seems like the school is blowing it off.

I don't understand how the kid was put on the bus with the other children if he was called out of class 15 minutes early? Why were all the other kids out too? If, after a few minutes of his being summoned to the office, he didn't show, why didn't someone go look for him? So he was wandering around for 15+ minutes & nobody wondered where he was? The timetable on this just doesn't add up IMO.

If the father is truly upset why do you have your child still enrolled at Aloe? And why would you allow these other family members kids to go there? I understand why you panic but to wait for the sheriff to come instead of going to ABC to embrace your child who you thought you just lost, puzzles me. I would have ran to ABC to make sure that was my child and to hold them in my arms. I also think the parent has to realize teachers and aides are human. The kid didn't follow what was asked of them. I know many teachers and kids who have gone to ALOE and have never heard of anything like this.

First of all let me apologize for making it sound like this father didn’t care for his child. If I have offended the family of this boy I’m sorry and I’m grateful that he is ok.
Having children who have attended Aloe and ABC I have a great respect for the people who work there and have trusted them for many years. It is apparent that a lapse in protocol happened but the first few days of school are hectic with a lot of new faces and I can see how this type of thing can very easily happen under the circumstances.
I hope that the lesson learned here is unless we are all vigilant in watching out for our children things can happen.

I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS A FREE WORLD AND EVERYONE HAS THIER RIGHT TO SAY WHAT THEY PLEASE AND EVERYONE HAS DIFFERENT OPINIONS ON THINGS AND AS THE AUNT TO THE LITTLE ONE WHO THIS ARTICLE IS REFERRING TO I WILL SPEAK AS WELL. FIRST OF ALL I WANT TO JUST THANK THOSE WHO WERE SUPPORTIVE IN UNDERSTANDING MY BROTHER-IN-LAWS SUDDEN ACTIONS. OUR FAMILY HAS BEEN THROUGH ALOT JUST AS IM SURE EVERY OTHER FAMILY HAS. SO NOT BEING ABLE TO FIND ONE OF LITTLE ONES IS JUST LIKE STABBING US IN OUR HEARTS. TELL ME IF YOU WERE TO SEE A CHART SAYING YOUR CHILD HAS ALREADY LEFTED WHEN KNOWING EITHER YOU OR GRANDMOTHER WERE THE ONLY ONES IN CHARGE OF PICKING YOUR CHILD UP WITH THE BOTH OF YOU EMPTY HANDED..TELL ME YOUR HEART WOULDN'T STOP BEATING AND FIRST THOUGHT WOULD BE "O MY GOD SOME SICK PERSON GOT MY KID!" EVERYONE REMEMBERS THE NEWS ALERTS THAT WERE BROADCASTED ABOUT THE SICK MINDED PEOPLE WHO WERE WATCHING KIDS AND TRYING TO GET THEM. EVERYONE HAS THEIR SIDES OF THE STORIES BUT WHO WE REALLY NEED TO KEEP IN MIND HERE IS MY NEPHEW AND ALL THE OTHER KIDS ATTENDING SCHOOL. MY NEPHEW IS BARELY FIVE YEARS OLD SO TELL ME WHY SHOULD IT HAVE BEEN OKAY FOR HIM TO WALK THE HALLS ALONE. THERES NO WAY HE COULD BE FAMILIER WITH THE SCHOOL LAYOUT ALREADY CAUSE LIKE MANY OF YOU HAVE SAID IT'S BARELY THE BEGINNING OF SCHOOL SO OFCOURSE IT'S ALWAYS CRAZY. VISD IS OFCOURSE TRYING TO COVER THEIR BACKS HERE AND YES ISSUES HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED. THIS ISSUE COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO ANYBODY...PRETTY MUCH EVERYBODY HAS KIDS SO EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS ESPECIALLY FOR THE CHILDRENS SAKE. EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY IS COUNTED FOR AND SHOULD NOT BE RUSHED OFF JUST AS MY NEPHEW WAS. AND THE "SUB" WHO WAS REPRIMANDED FOR THIS SHOULD HAVE PAID MORE MIND CAUSE TO THINK IF IT WERE YOUR KID. BUT IT'S NOT ONLY THE "SUBS" FAULT BUT THE ONE WHO LET MY NEPHEW OUT OF CLASS WITHOUT SUPERVISION IS THE MAIN AT FAULT. WE CAN'T GO TO SAY IF JASON WOULD HAVE NOT CHECKED HIM OUT EARLY IT WOULD HAVE NOT HAPPEND BECAUSE ALOE BEING AS LINENT AND TRUSTWORTHY AS THEY ARE HAVE ALLOWED MANY PARENTS TO CHECK OUT KIDS WITH THE "JUST BECAUSE" REASON. WE JUST PRAY RULES AND REGULATIONS WILL BE TIGHTEN AND CLOSELY WATCHED FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN AND IM NOT ONLY SAYING OURS MEANING MY FAMILY CONSIDERING 5 OF THE GRANDKIDS ATTEND ALOE, I'M SPEAKING FOR EVERY PARENT OUT THERE WHO AS A REAL PARENT LEAVE OUR CHILDREN IN THE CARE OF THE SCHOOL NOT ONLY FOR EDUCATION PURPOUSES BUT FOR THEIR SAFETY ASWELL SO WE CAN DO OUR PART IN PROVIDING FOR THEM. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR EVERYONE WHO SHOWED CONCERN. JUST HELP US PRAY FOR THE REST OF THE SCHOOL YEAR TO GO SMOOTH AND THAT HIS FIRST YEAR OF SCHOOL LIKE MANY OTHERS WILL BE MORE MEMORABLE THEN THIS. - JOSEPHINE (AUNT)

It's my understanding that the father went to pick up his child 15 min before school was to let out because he didn't want to deal with the rain. Also I was told by someone at ABC that after the child was located by Aloe the father took another 50 min to go pick him up at ABC. It's less that 1/2 mile between the two facilities. I was told that he was waiting for the sheriff's dept to show up to file a report. He must have not been too conerned about his son after he was told where he was at. I would have picked my child up first and then decided what to do next.

oopss... I meant NativeVictorian....not NativeTexan.

@NativeTexan -- The child was called out of the classroom. It doesn't say the father called the school.

My question where was the father??? Why was he not inside the school to pick up his 5 year old son??? The father should be accountable for a 5 year old child. Had he gone inside the school instead of calling the school (what I get from the newspaper article) THIS WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED.

Yes this is going on everyday more and more daily. But this should be taken very very serriouse by VISD. What if someone did walk in and take a child in some way or another. And the parent found out latter. Thats not small matter at all period. Yes its easy for a child to slip off some where very easy as we all see daily in life and in the news and things happen. But if some type of school worker fails to do the job as asked to do, to me something needs to be done and fast befor something else more serriouse happens. Not only is it the teachers fault bus the day care or bus drivers fault as well for leting a child enter the bus with out proper channels of knowing who the child was. VISD once again can be under the spot light if enough gets togther. lets just pray for the safety of the children daily as we are suppose to trust VISD with the children for the safety.

Say what you will, call it throwing a stone or what ever you may want to call it. VISD has a to be held accountable for their mistakes. This child should have never been dismissed from the the classroom if they did not ride a daycare bus or school bus. Teachers ask other teachers to watch the class while they go on a bathroom break or have to take a child to the office. Why was that not done here? I think that the district is covering its backside in this matter. I have been in VISD for 25 years and I have yet to be asked for an id when I pick someone up whether its my child or my grandchildren. VISD needs to wake up and rethink safety. Where children are concerned its Safety First, egos last. I guess if they had thought more along the line of cancelling school then maybe this would not have happened. Hind sight really is 20/20.

As someone who knows exactly what happened, you could find fault a lot a places. The problem is assigning blame doesn't help and it doesn't fix the problem.
To borrow a movie title from a few years ago, it was a "Perfect Storm" of circumstances. You had a father who came early to pick up his son. If he would have waited to pick up at normal time, the child would not have been sent to the office on his own. If the child would have gone directly to the office, it wouldn't have happened. If it would not have thundering and raining, the aids would not have been trying to get the kids on the bus as fast as possible for safety reasons. If it wouldn't have been the beginning of the school year, the ABC Bus driver would have known that the child wasn't theirs.
It was a dozen circumstances that lead to this unfortunate event but sometimes it takes things like this to make us re-evaluate our procedures. Maybe the school should have a video monitor system down each hallway with a storage system that would allow them to quickly go back over the video to find where the child ended up. Who knows? What I do know is my third son is now a 5th grader at Aloe and all three of my boys were pretty much raised in their early years by ABC's staff and I would unequivocally trust my kids to them. They are both filled thoughtful and caring staff who always put the well-being of their kids in their care first. The only thing that made the situation worse was the father freaking out and yelling at the Aloe staff. Not only was his behavior taking staff away from trying to find his son, but he was frightening the other kids at the school. But then again, it’s hard to find fault with a parent who has lost a child. If it was me, I would have probably done the same thing. What I do know is that spending even a second trying to figure out who was at fault is not going to stop it from happening again.

Just yet another opportunity for the Advocate to highlight something negative about VISD and for myriad members of the community to pick up stones as well. If our much bragged-about and highly-awarded newspaper (do they buy the awards?), as well as the community at-large would support our school district instead of tearing it down every opportunity they get, we might be an Exemplary district instead of only Recognized.

And VISD wants to cut down on traffic by having more kids ride the bus. Uh....if it means more of this then no thanks.

"the child headed out the door to the office, as per procedure, and along the way saw a friend standing in a line outside and decided to talk with him."

Well there's the problem; the child didn' t do what he was suppose to do and the most important thing is that no one accompanied the child to the office.

Surely we don't allow kindegartners to wander about on their own or do we?

I can tell you that with kids in elementary, jr high, and high school, I have Never been asked to show any form of ID when going to offices to pick them up.

I can just imagine how that father felt. My son goes to Cade middle school and let me tell you of the mess we have been having with the after school bus drop off. My son got home on the first day at 415 pm and the next day the same. I went to work on the third day and at 445 decided to call home and find out how school went. My daughter who is a Sr. informed me that my son was not home yet, but the kid up the street was and said that J had to wait for another bus, because there were too many kids on the first bus. No notification of this was made, even though I filled out umpteen papers at registration with every contact number we have. All sorts of things start going through your mind no matter how hard you try to reason with yourself. My daughter called back at 515 to let me know that J was home. The next week both boys got on the wrong bus because the routes were apparently changed without their knowing and they got off 6 blocks from home after realizing that the bus was not going to the prior drop off spot. The next time my son was let off at yet another spot the neighbor boy's father was driving down the street, saw my son and asked where his son was and my son said that he had to wait on another bus. This to me is ridiculious the school is just asking for something to happen.

The father went to the school to pick him up early. The child just didn't go to the office. If you read you will see that. I had to read twice to get that. The article just doesn't make it very clear.

VISDMom, I took the article to mean that he was called out of class for his father, on the way out he stopped to talk to a friend and that is how he ended up on the wrong bus. Knowing Aloe, they wouldn't have called him to the office unless his father had shown proper ID. I have had kids at Aloe off and on for 9 years. I know that office staff pretty well and I still have to show my ID anytime I am there. This was an unfortunate accident that shouldn't have happened, but I am sure that the staff is taking measures to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

Okay, but what about the fact that, according to the article, SOMEONE purporting to be the child's father allegedly arrived and the child was called out of class? Does this not go all the way back to that point?

While I in NO way wish to diminish the way the actual father felt (Heaven know I would have panicked as well), the child was sent out of the classroom to the office and stopped to visit along the way. Reprimanding the aide is all fine and dandy (no offense to the aide) but a better choice might be to find out why the child was called to the office in the first place; parents have to show picture ID before getting their children, even for high school students.

The teachers aide should be repremanded for not following procedure.

Wow!! What a scary situation, Im so happy that the child was safe and that ABC took good care of him until this situation was resolved. Its so hectic during the end of the day pick-up, especially with the younger kids, I hope measures are being taken to prevent another situation such as this.

mine fell asleep on the bus once and didnt get noticed until the bus returned to the bus barn. then they had to crank up and drive her home. seems like a driver could take a head count and check them off when he lets them off. I guess its different with a daycare picking up.

I would think that this school and it's teachers were just as concerned about this as the parent. Maybe not freaking out but you can bet they were concerned.
Diane Boyett is a spokesperson for VISD. She is simply making an official statement for VISD. Standard mumbo gumbo.
I am very glad that everything turned out ok in this situation. You hear so many cases where it doesn't.
And I can tell you if this had happened to one of my children I would have been so scared I would have raised the roof.

That is a parents worst fear. My heart broke when I read this. Any loving parent would understand the sheer panic and distress he went through. THANK THE GOOD LORD his son is safe and sound. I don't understand why public school teachers are so withdrawn.

Kids being misplaced is more common than anyone knows. It happened to my son in Yoakum when he was in pre k, my neice in Yoakum when she was in kindergarten and my son in San Antonio when he was in kindergarten. I was terrified all three times. There are some sick demented people in this world and anything could have happened. Thank god my son and neice were safe and I am so glad this child was safe too. But the school staff is so de-sensitised to the parents they dont think its a big deal when a child goes missing and show very little concern that its scarey. Both times when my son went missing I was told I had to wait until all the buses returned to the barn before they could do anything. That took 2 freaking hours! Everyone knows anything can happen in minutes and it was unacceptable. I do not blame this family for being upset.