Autistic preschool student wanders off but gets rescued by MRT staff; teacher is unable to remember how it happened

In a Facebook post today, a mother named Justina Ong told netizens about her experience with her child enrolled at My First Skool on Serangoon North Avenue.

According to Justina, her child’s preschool had lost track of their student, and that they were completely unaware of the child’s whereabouts for a certain period of time.

What makes the matter worse is that Justina says her child is autistic, and could have been the reason that the student wandered off.

Here’s her post:

This is what happen in my son school today (24 October 2017). School name is My First Skool (Blk 140 Serangoon North Ave 2).

10.48am – I received a call from school teacher saying that my son is missing from school.

10.53am – Yishun mrt staff called up saying that my son is there.

Thereafter i rushed to Yishun and yes is really my son. Really thanks god he is fine. So after that i went back to school and i hope i can talk to the school principal and teachers nicely. But what they told us is really driving us crazy. Below is what the class teacher told us.

10.15am – She bought half of the class students which is around 7 students to outside the class to water and clear the plants.

10.30am – All students back to class.

10.31am – She found that my son is missing.

And by this time i go more crazy… I was thinking the timing is not tally. So i question back.

Me : Yishun mrt called us at 10.53am and told us my son is there so is impossible he can took bus 73 go to Ang Mo Kio mrt then to Yishun mrt.

Principal : Teacher please think carefully.

Teacher : I maybe remember the timing wrongly.

At this point i went really crazy and told them off. Please stop making up story! So you dun really know what time my son went missing?????? If now i cant find my son how??? What you going to do???

All i ended the conversation with them.

I know someone will ask why my son will do all this when he is big enough to know this is wrong. But please note he is an autism kid and he been in this school since toddler, principal and all teachers in the school know about his situation.

And ya as a parents i did ask my son to say sorry to the teachers as it is wrong to run away from school.

I seriously need thanks AWWA teachers teaching my son to remember my contact number if not i might not be able to find son and i might have lost my son forever.

Thanks god my son is fine.

Everyone who read this post please help to share around. This can happen to my son it can also happen on other kids in the school. This is really unacceptable.

According to Justina’s account, her child is enrolled in My First Skool on Serangoon North Avenue.

From her post, she says that at 10:48 in the morning, she received a call from the school that her son is missing. A few minutes later, she received a call from Yishun MRT station staff that they have her son.

She quickly goes to fetch him from the station then goes back to confront the teacher and the principal of the school.

The teacher says that she took the students out to water plants in the school garden at around 10 in the morning. Only upon returning from the chore at 10:30am did she notice that the child went missing.

But that statement was hotly contested by Justina. She says that it’s impossible for her child to go missing from 10:30am and turn up at Yishun train station at 10:53am when the child has no money or EZ card!

This prompted Justina to ask the teacher again about what happened.

This is where the teacher said that the timeline of events as they remembered it could be wrong.

After that, Justina gets even more mad because the school could not provide a coherent timeline on the events that lead to her son disappearing from school.

Justina warns other parents about the dangers that could still happen to children while they’re in school.

What does the Singapore online community have to say?

Here are some comments made on Justina’s post:

Some gave their experience with the school.

Other netizens gave advice to parents on how to keep their autistic child safe. Consider helping them memorize numbers and to make them wear tags that have all their important information.

Others gave empathy by relating their own experience.

Other Singaporeans criticized Justina for finding so much fault with the teacher.

Some of the other commenters pointed out that the teacher may have made a mistake but lying about the incident is unacceptable.

A few other netizens said that the teacher must be fired.

While others defended the teacher.

What do you think about this incident? Should the teacher be fired? Let us know in the comments?

Header image from Shutterstock.