Tyler, 4, walks out of school and crosses busy main road to get home
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy walked out of his Barnstaple school and made his way home to his mother across a busy main road.
Nursery pupil Tyler Roffey told his teacher he was going to the toilet, before walking three-quarters of a mile from Ashleigh Primary School to his home in Oakleigh Road.
His mother Sara McGuire said she was now considering taking Tyler out of the school if security was not improved.
The school said it was shocked by the "unfortunate incident" and had now installed a new, locked, gate.
Ms McGuire had dropped Tyler off at school in the morning and expected to pick him up at 3.15pm. But at 1.45pm, Tyler appeared at the back door of their home.
She said: "I felt sick when I found out what had happened. He should not be able to get out of school that easily.
"Luckily I was at home that day and Tyler is a sensible child, pressing the button at the road crossing and waiting for the green man but it could have been much worse.
"I took him straight back to class but the security just isn't good enough.
"Both Tyler and his twin brother, Leo, currently attend the school but I am seriously considering pulling them both out and moving them to a different school unless something is done."
Shortly after the incident, Ms McGuire decided to test the school's security.
"I managed to get on to the school grounds, wander around the playground and school field near the nursery and no one asked who I was or why I was there. You expect your children to be safe at school. I could have been anyone," said.
Head teacher Mark Henderson said the safety of his pupils was paramount.
"This was a very unfortunate accident and we were shocked when we found out," he said.
"Tyler had gone to the toilet and the staff noticed he was absent two minutes later and let me know straight away.
"Together we carried out a full search of the school within three minutes of him leaving the classroom.
"Schools are not prisons and if the security of children is too intense it would not be conducive to learning.
"Since the problem we have installed a new gate with a high latch, put a combination lock on our current gates and ordered new ones too.
"I have met Tyler's parents on two occasions since the incident and both times she said she felt reassured by the action taken by the school.
"She also commented on the nature of her son and that she had trouble at home keeping him in the house."
13 Comments
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by Deborah, Barnstaple
Wednesday, October 22 2008, 4:03PM
“Erica says Sara had taught him right and wrong so Tyler got home safely. Perhaps if Sara took the time to teach her son to behave, he wouldn't have lied about where he was going AND he wouldn't have walked out of school where he knew he was supposed to be.
My two children attended the school and I had no concerns for their safety. If children can wander out of their own homes which generally have only two entrances how can they expect schools to contain children? Have electrified fences and gun turrets every 50 yards? I think not. Sadly we cannot lock children up as securely as we would like. If prisons cannot contain prisoners how can schools contain children. I understand the school has increased measures to contain the children. Fortunately this incident had a happy ending. The school is taking measures to increase security. This will inconvenience parents and no doubt some will complain about that. But there you go, you cannot please all of the people....”
by anon, westward ho!
Saturday, October 18 2008, 3:46PM
“Children are natural explorers and this will continue to happen. If the mother takes her children to another school it may happen there. If she is that worried, home school them. don't blame the head, children are not robots and you can't programme them to do excaly what you tell them.”
by Jon Prescotti, Barnstaple
Friday, October 17 2008, 3:38PM
“The hole story? I hope he didn't get stuck...”
by clare, barnstaple
Friday, October 17 2008, 12:51PM
“like tylers mum i was not informed .it was my son who told me he had been in a police car that day .i then questioned the headmaster who then told me the hole story.i hope the school will look in to there proceedures on how to inform the parents.”
by Emma, Barnstaple
Friday, October 17 2008, 10:03AM
“I feel for the parents has this has also happened to me ,when my god son had managed to wander out of the same school 3 years ago and he was only in reception .He was found by the police down by the Ta centre who had brought him back to school .This has occured on many occassions and i have a child at Ashleigh and i feel that the sercurity is not satisfactory and as parents when we leave are children at school we need to know that they are safe and can not wander .As we are all aware it only takes a few seconds for a child to pinched”