Mother: 7-Year-Old Son Walked Out Of L.I. School Without Anyone Noticing
MASTIC BEACH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A 7-year-old Long Island boy was home safe Thursday evening after a day, and after walking more than a mile.
As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported, Brandon McNeil walked out of his Long Island elementary school in the middle of the day with no one noticing. He said he left because a teacher scolded him.
"It's not OK," said Brandon's mother, Jacalyn Easters.
Easters said Brandon walked himself from Tangier Smith Elementary School in Mastic Beach to his grandfather's home in Mastic. He passed through busy intersections and showed up in tears, explaining that a teacher had yelled at him.
"I just started crying. I didn't understand why he walked home from school," Easters told 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera. "The first thing I thought of was how dangerous it was. A 7-year-old walking a mile and a half in freezing cold weather on a dangerous road."
Easters said the boy excused himself to go to the bathroom, but instead got his things and left the school.
He walked a mile and a half alone, Easters said.
"I couldn't believe it. Because it was like, there's no way. There's no way he walked home from school and nobody called me," she said.
Easters said she also could not believe that the school apparently did not notice.
"For a school to not notice a child is missing; to not see them walk out of a side door; to not have an alarm?" she said.
Brandon's journey took him down Mastic Road – the main drag in the area where trucks zip along. He was safe on Thursday evening, but relatives could not help ask, what if?
"Walking with the snow on the side? So he's in the road walking -- he's not even on the sidewalk," said Brandon's aunt, Debra Agostinello. "That is so dangerous."
"Nobody asked him: 'Why are you walking down the street at 1 o'clock in the afternoon? Shouldn't you be in school?'" Easters said. "Nothing."
And worst of all, said Easters, teachers didn't even notice that Brandon was missing for an hour.
"I called the school and told them, you know: 'Brandon's home with me. Did you guys notice that he was gone?' kind of thing," she said. "And they were like, 'Yeah, we just started looking for him.'"
Easters is so upset she is not sending her son back to school this week, WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reported.
"I just don't feel like it's safe there...if he's that quickly able to make a decision about wanting to leave and then actually leaving and nobody sees him," Easters said.
The school said it is looking into the incident.
"We share the family's concern that a student left a building without permission and are relieved that he is safe," a spokesman for the William Floyd School District said in a statement. "We have been in communication with the family, and, at this point, are still gathering information regarding the circumstances."
Brandon's mother met with the principal on Wednesday, and said she got apologies and a promise Brandon can switch to another class. But she wants changes to how the school monitors its doors.
She believes the school should install an alarm system.
"It's a cheap, effective way of doing something so great to where this wouldn't happen again," Easters said. "You can buy alarm systems at the dollar store that if you open the door or open a window they go off."
Late Thursday, the district announced it is considering increased security presence and exit door alarms to ensure something like this never happens again.