Alvin Raju told the Herald his 5-year-old daughter Kiara was in her third week at school when her teacher placed her outside the classroom as time-out for not adhering to “mat time” on Monday between 11.30am and 12pm.
“She tried to go back home because she reckoned nobody wanted her in the classroom... Kids’ brains are real different.”
The girl then walked out of the school’s open gates in a bid to go home, crossing two roads and walking hundreds of metres near a busy intersection, her parents said.
Her mother, Jotika Swamy, told the Herald she happened to be driving nearby around 12.20pm when she spotted her daughter walking with an unknown man on the sidewalk of Robert Ross Place.
She confronted the stranger, who told her he was an Uber driver who had seen her outside the Clendon Park McDonald’s and was going to take her home.
Swamy said she took her daughter back to the school and claimed they were “surprised” and unaware Kiara had left.
Finlayson Park School principal Sumithra Naidoo told the Herald the school takes its responsibilities for the safety and wellbeing of its students “extremely seriously”.
The school had since installed a temporary fence in response to the incident, she said.
“As well as already putting in place a temporary fence, the board and senior leaders will be fully reviewing this matter to understand all of the circumstances leading to the child leaving the school grounds and to understand what actions and further safeguards we need to put in place to ensure that this remains a one-off incident only,” she told the Herald.
“We will have discussions with the Ministry of Education also, as well as the family involved. There is no greater priority than our students.”
MoE hautū (leader) Te Tai Raro (North) Isabel Evans told the Herald the school did not inform it of the situation.
“Schools have a duty of care to make sure children are always supervised and accounted for,” she said.
“We have contacted them to offer support to ensure appropriate measures are in place to keep students safe and engaged in class.
“Schools have policies and procedures for behaviour management, and we are available to provide extra advice and support as needed. Schools are expected to follow established safety protocols, which include immediately notifying the child’s parents or caregivers and informing the police if a student is missing.”
Raju said his daughter was still shocked by the ordeal and wouldn’t be going to school for the next two days.
“We just want to make sure she’s out of that mind, because she’s really scared.
“It’s just not going out of the brain that, what [would have] happened if the child did not come home?”
Raju said he trusted the school but wanted his daughter to have a different teacher.
“We trust the school, we send the kids to school, we want our kids to be safe.
“Keep asking your kids [if] everything is fine in school. Just keep an eye. Make sure the kids are safe.”
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