2 days ago
Mom demands change after 5-year-old son wanders off from Fairfield school
A Fairfield mother said her worst nightmare was realized Wednesday when she went to pick up her child from his first day at Cleo Gordon Elementary School, and to her surprise, he was not there.
Corinna Goode-Lavern says her 5-year-old son Tristan was not among the group of students waiting for their parents when she pulled in to pick him up.
The children were not behind the gate, but standing on the parking lot sidewalk with their teacher.
"It's scary to know our littles aren't safe at school," Goode-Lavern said.
She says the teacher told her they did not know where her son was and would have to check the cameras to see if he even walked out with them.
Goode-Lavern says she started frantically searching for her son across the school's campus with help from one of the front office workers.
After having no luck finding him, Goode-Lavern turned her attention to the busy E. Tabor Avenue just in front of the school.
"I actually had a panic attack in the car searching for him. My thoughts were, my son is gone forever. Where could he have gone? A five-year-old wandering, someone is going to pick him up or worse, someone is going to hit him," Goode-Lavern said.
She called her husband in a panic.
As it turns out, Goode-Lavern says that Tristan got scared while waiting for her to pick him up. He walked away from the pickup line and all the way home, a 12-minute walk.
While she was driving through the neighborhood, a familiar face brought good news.
"My local mailman actually stopped me and said, 'Hey, I seen your child walking, he is safe on your porch.' My son walked 8 long blocks across 7 streets alone as a 5-year-old. And nobody knew," she said. "When I got to him and he was crying, he said, 'Mommy, I looked both ways before I crossed.' "
Goode-Lavern says the mailman made sure her son Tristan sat on the front porch and opened his lunch box to get him a snack. While he was running his route he was keeping an eye on the child, about to call 911.
"I was like, 'I appreciate you so much. You made sure my son was safe and nobody else could do that for us,' " Goode-Lavern said.
She said she confronted the district on Thursday, demanding change and ultimately pulled her child from the school. She feels there was not enough urgency by the staff or her child's teacher when it was discovered he was missing.
Tristan will start at a different school within the district on Monday, but Goode-Lavern says she is working to get him moved out of the district entirely.
In a statement, Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District leaders told CBS13:
"Students' safety and well-being is always our top priority. We are aware of the incident involving a kindergarten student at Cleo Gordon on the first day of school. While the student was safely reunited with their family, this should not have occurred. District officials met with the family to discuss the incident. The school reviewed the circumstances and immediately updated its dismissal procedures, providing additional guidance for staff to reinforce protocols. We are taking this matter very seriously. Out of respect for the privacy of the student and family, we cannot provide any more details at this time."
When asked what changes exactly were being implemented, the district gave this response:
"Cleo Gordon Elementary has refined its dismissal procedures for kindergarten students to further support an orderly and safe end to the school day. Staff continue to use clipboards to confirm authorized pick-up, and now students remain behind the gates with staff until their guardian arrives. Parents and guardians park and meet students at the gates, rather than having the kindergarteners walk out to the pick-up area. These updates build on existing safety practices for our youngest learners."
