Preschool apologizes for losing track of autistic child–teacher faces disciplinary action

A teacher who lost track of an autistic child for a certain amount of time is to be disciplined by My First Skool’s management for the incident. This comes after My First Skool apologizes for the incident that happened on October 24.

When her autistic child wandered off from watering the plants over at My First Skool on Serangoon, North Avenue, mother Justina Ong only found out late in the morning. Thankfully, she recovered her child minutes after she received the dreaded call.

Back at the school, she asked the teachers what happened, and didn’t get an answer that calmed her down.

According to Justina’s post, Yishun MRT station had called her up at 10:53am when they rescued her child who had traveled all the way from school to the station without money or an EZ card.

But after being initially asked, the teacher gave an answer that made Justina get even more angry.

In the end, the teacher says she could not establish the right timeline during their conversation.

Christina then shared her story on her Facebook account, along with warnings to other parents.

Here is her post:

School issues apology

In an interview, My First Preskool issued this statement:

“We apologise unreservedly for this incident which has caused great stress and worry to the family of a child under our care. The boy has been with us since he was a toddler and our teachers have always conscientiously looked out for him.

Upon discovering that the child was not with his classmates yesterday morning during a gardening activity, the teachers at the centre did their best to search for the child in the vicinity of the centre, before the teacher in charge of the gardening activity contacted the parent.

The teacher-in-charge is deeply apologetic and badly shaken by this incident. She is being counselled and understands that appropriate disciplinary action will have to be taken. We are doing our utmost to engage with the parent on this incident.”

What to do to avoid situations like this

While you may think that this sort of thing couldn’t happen to you, this is something you and your child could never control. Here are some guidelines for parents who wish to minimize the chances of this sort of thing happening:

1. Help your child remember their name, their phone number or address. Even if your child doesn’t know what they are memorizing, being able to repeat the information is important.
2. Sew personal data onto the child’s clothes or bag. You may want to print personal details to sew into the hems of jackets or shirts so your child can point to their information when talking to other people.
3. Put a smartwatch or tracker on your child. You can purchase such devices on Lazada.

Has this ever happened to you or your child? Share your story in the comments!

Header image from Shutterstock.