So the school misplaced my four-year-old daughter today.........

[Kuurgen]

On my daughter's third day of school they had a supply teacher in.

School gets out at 3:35pm, and I'm at the school as the bell rings to pick my daughter up.

The junior kindergarten area is fenced in, the idea being that the kids are held until the parents show up. When I get there, none of my daughter's class is there, nor is the teacher.
I wait outside the fenced area, figuring that the class is late getting out. After 5 to 10 min. of waiting, I start to get a little concerned. My son who attends the same school goes in to find out where my daughter is.

The classroom that she usually is in is dark and no kids are in it.

I grab another teacher who releases kids in the same area and she confirms that none of my daughter's class is there. I go to the office, and tell the secretary that I am unable to find my daughter.
She then proceeds to page my daughter over the PA system, at which point I say "my daughter is four years old.....".

The secretary then tells me, that maybe she will show up or someone will bring her to the office.[very condescending this secretary] So I wait another 10 min. and a room to room search begins, looking for my daughter.

I asked them to locate the supply teacher, and she is long gone. They have no way of reaching her, they have no telephone numbers for her, and at some point I believe I hear them discussing going through directory assistance to get the supply teacher's telephone number through process of elimination.

The panic begins to set in, and I ask who I assume is a vice principal "do you have camera footage of the schoolyard?" No cameras.

The first teacher that I talk to said that last year a few of the junior kindergarten kids have been put on the bus by mistake. At this point, it's now 4pm and they have no direct line to the buses. They have to phone dispatch and look for any "left over" kids who have not gotten off the bus. They have no way of immediately accounting for what kids are on the bus, and they have to wait until all the buses finish their routes and bring any "leftover" kids back to school.

I'm speed walking back to my house with the principal on the off chance my daughter has somehow decided to walk home alone. We get to my house, and my sons are there and she is not at a neighbours and she has not walked home. I call my wife, who utters a few words, hangs up on me and is rushing back home from work.

We get back to school, I wonder out loud if I should be contacting the police at this point. The principal then called 911 and I gave them a description of my daughter and told the officer on the phone that I will be the one freaking out of the front of the school.

I then tell the principal to call my wife [no cell phone on me] and tell her I have called the police.

Around 4:30 I get news that they have found my daughter on one of the buses and she is heading back to the school.

In my daughter's school, they have indoor shoes and outdoor shoes. The idea being with children wear the indoor shoes to keep the school clean. My daughter gets off the bus carrying her outdoor shoes while wearing her indoor shoes. She was not even given time to change into her outdoor shoes.

My wife and the police arrived not long after, no police report was taken. At this point were thinking we need to go back into school tomorrow and discuss this with the principal to ensure that this doesn't happen to us or anybody else's child. My wife's friend also arrived on scene and asked for the supply teacher's name. The principal responded that she would have to go to the board before she could release the teacher's name.

My wife and I are talking about this, not really sure what we should do but it seems that the supply teacher's sole mission was to get out of the school as fast as humanly possible, even releasing the junior kindergarten class before the bell had even rang.

We plan on going to the school in the morning, and while I wouldn't normally post something like this on an Internet forum, I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on this and what you as parents would do if this were your child.

The entire time this was happening, I can only think of three names: Leslie Mahaffey, Christine Jessop,Kristin French.

TLDR: School could not account for my 4 year old daughter's whereabouts for about an hour.

I wanted to add that some of the other staff were fantastic, including the other teacher who releases her kids in the same area. At one point she had ripped off her sandals running around the school looking for my daughter.

[slowtyper]

Unbelievable story (well written too...I was a bit frantic reading it)...sorry you had to go through that. Good luck with however you decide to handle it.

[jason9945]

Phone the news.....

[Kuurgen]

Unbelievable story (well written too...I was a bit frantic reading it)...sorry you had to go through that. Good luck with however you decide to handle it.

I have never been so worried for one of my kids ever. It takes a lot to shake me up, I'm not a helicopter parent, and it started getting freaky when then office staff said to each other "He wants to make THE CALL".
[call to police]

I started getting really nervous then, perhaps because all of a sudden police involvement means they really don't know themselves where my daughter is, and at some point I'm thinking don't they do some amber alert or something. Very surreal. To be standing in the office wanting to run in all directions screaming my daughters name.

My daughter was completely unfazed by this, for her it was just a bus ride.

[tdotsaver]

My daughter is just under three. Last week, my husband went to pick her up from school a little early. He goes inside the main doors and then the inner doors, and a few steps down the corridor and our daughter calls out "Hi Daddy!" She is there outside of her classroom by herself. He takes her back to her classroom a few doors down and asks the teacher why our daughter was unsupervised. The teacher didn't even know that she wasn't in the room. The owner of the school walks by at this point and sees my husband getting upset and she gets upset too. What had happened was the two other teachers had left early, so there was only one teacher left with all the kids to come back from the playground. The teacher had the class by herself including two crying kids and was distracted.

This happened just a few days after a number of kids (babies, really) went AOL from a Markham daycare and the daycare got shut down. Let me see if I can find the link... here it is (http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1048956--markham-daycare-shut-down-after-toddlers-escape).

We plan on teaching our kid what to do if she gets "lost" and some basic rules about not leaving the school. Teachers need to do more "head counts".

[Kuurgen]

We plan on teaching our kid what to do if she gets "lost" and some basic rules about not leaving the school. Teachers need to do more "head counts".

A family friend suggested we sew all her info into her backpack as well, which is something we are going to do. In most cases people are getting paid very good money to watch our kids, and situations such as mine or yours are inexcusable.

The sad part is the technology exists to make this process more efficient, including thumbprint scanners that get mounted inside buses. Even a bar code can be affixed to a backpack to ensure the child is getting on the right bus and off at the right stop.

At my daughters school all lunch garbage comes home, they wear indoor shoes to eliminate cleaning staff and yet they can't spring for 2 lousy cameras, one by the buses and one overlooking the yard.

This happens quite a bit, my neighbour was telling me her 4 year old son was almost let out at the wrong stop. Is it that hard to keep track of children??

So what's my next step, honestly i was more relieved then angry when they found my daughter, however my wife and I are deciding that this matter shouldn't be laid to rest. The indoor shoes still being on were just proof that this teacher wanted to get out, to the point where she dismissed the class early.

[bubble.tea]

Clearly that sub-teacher needs to be reprimanded., if not worse.

So happy to hear it was a 'bus trip' for your daughter. YEEESH.

[JeeZues]

Damn, wish I or no one else goes through this. With 2 little girls this story just scares me. Glad you got your little one back.
I have no idea what I would've done either. I consider myself to be level and calm but I probably would've lost it!

I say burn the witch (sub)
j/k
but there need to be a system to double check or redundancy specially when a new teach or begging of school year, etc. so things like that don't happen...

[setell]

Oh my f'ing god....I would seriously have lost it and demand answers so this don't happen again. Somebody has to pay for their mistakes and that sub should not be teaching young children if you aren't up for the challenge! I am so glad your daughter is ok and it was just a fun bus ride for her but god the rollar coaster emotions you had to go through. I feel sooo bad for your wife to, imagine getting a phone call like that??!!! :cry::cry:

[x95zsk]

Oh my f'ing god....I would seriously have lost it and demand answers so this don't happen again. Somebody has to pay for their mistakes and that sub should not be teaching young children if you aren't up for the challenge! I am so glad your daughter is ok and it was just a fun bus ride for her but god the rollar coaster emotions you had to go through. I feel sooo bad for your wife to, imagine getting a phone call like that??!!! :cry::cry:

I would definite escalate up to the board if you don't get any answers in 48 hrs. start with the media - i would make a big stink for sure.

[pimom]

Our principal is totally safety conscientious. All children remain in the class until their bus number is called. There is a teacher/volunteer at the bus door directing/supervising the kids getting on the bus. The kids all exit through one door, filing past the teacher. The junior/senior kindergarteners are assigned an older busmate to walk them to their bus. At least the younger childern have large tags affixed to their back-packs with their bus number on it.

Kids being picked up by their parents remain in the class until their name is called. They are not called until the parent/guardian checks in. The parents are required to get buzzed through a locked door to get to the waiting area and check in.

I thought all these measures were a hassle, but ANY ONE of them would have stopped your daughter from getting on the bus.

[spike1128]

It's pretty scary. I think if it's my child going to school, I don't really got a choice to send them if it's public school. That's why I don't want to bring my child to daycare, I heard those horror stories on the news all the time about those.

[sunshineshara]

The first teacher that I talk to said that last year a few of the junior kindergarten kids have been put on the bus by mistake. At this point, it's now 4pm and they have no direct line to the buses. They have to phone dispatch and look for any "left over" kids who have not gotten off the bus. They have no way of immediately accounting for what kids are on the bus, and they have to wait until all the buses finish their routes and bring any "leftover" kids back to school.


So this happened last year, too? Unacceptable that they have not taken action. I would not let this go without some sort of official response from the principal/ school board, along with what measures they are taking to ensure this does not happen again.


that sub should not be teaching young children if you aren't up for the challenge!
This sub sounds downright incompetent.

[tkl]

Clearly that sub-teacher needs to be reprimanded., if not worse.

So happy to hear it was a 'bus trip' for your daughter. YEEESH.

+ 1

Call the Police ASAP if it happens again the next time just in case. You can always cancel the call after. Don't wait 30 minutes.

[Angel666]

Did the bus driver not notice there was a new child boarding the bus?
This is nuts!
I would bring this to the parents council so they are aware and maybe can help you make the issue known.

Call the media...I would.

[FrogPrince]

I would totally go ape**** if this happened to my daughter.

BTW, "incompetent" and "substitute teacher" is redundant.

[nyik]

I would totally go ape**** if this happened to my daughter.

BTW, "incompetent" and "substitute teacher" is redundant.

+111111

[jandumm]

Having a husband who's an elementary school teacher, I can say that it's only happened at their school once and it was once of the scariest things ever and it really really freaked the staff out when it happened.

Totally feel for you and the substitute teacher really f***ed up.

[chickibum]

OMG... first of all I'm glad your daughter is ok.

I would be in a deep rage if I were you. This wasn't something like losing your daughters indoor shoes or something. At the very least this sub needs to be fired.

I really dont even know what to say, this is just ridiculous :mad:

[inmyturret]

Wow, this happened to me when I was 5. I was the kid on the bus.

My mom was sick, so a family friend was sent to pick me up at school. The school was called and a message was supposed to be passed on to me to wait for the family friend, and the bus company was notified that I wasn't going to be on the bus that day. The message never got passed on, so I got on the bus as usual. The bus driver never stopped at my stop, since I wasn't supposed to be there. At the end of his shift, he found me still on the bus and crying. Meanwhile, the family friend and school were freaking out cause I wasn't at school. The worst part is that I got chewed out by the bus driver, since I wasn't supposed to be on the bus.

I also had a supply teacher who was so angry with us that she kept the entire class late, so a bunch of us missed our buses.

[ippon]

Did the bus driver not notice there was a new child boarding the bus?
This is nuts!
I would bring this to the parents council so they are aware and maybe can help you make the issue known.

Call the media...I would.

well, it's only been a couple of weeks since school started.

[Kuurgen]

Thanks for your words of support. We spent an hour with the Vice Principal today being reassured that they are changing their process which got set in motion last night after we went home.

First and foremost the supply teacher is persona non grata at my daughter's school. (This apparently is a process in itself because of the union.)

We also learned that when the last bell rings, that's when a supply teacher's duty ends. They do not have to do any supervisory work. In this case the teacher's duty ended before the bell rang!
Also, I'm sure the bus monitors have been called to task for my daughter getting on the bus.

Other interesting things, we learned is that all communication to supply teachers is through a dispatch. There is no direct communication info given. Dispatch usually goes to voice mail, so this is why they couldn't get a hold of the supply teacher immediately. They are STILL not releasing her name to us.

It's pretty much agreed that this would not have happened if the regular teacher was on duty. The regular teacher even made a point to say that she has a list that states each child's pickup method.
So she has no idea how this could have been missed. (IIRC it's posted on the wall)

Child's name -picked up by father (or whatever the case may be)

They are also re positioning bus tags on back packs as a result of this.

There are a few other things that we learned, but because this is still ongoing, I will omit them until we follow through with the school trustee.

The cameras are of course the board not providing a budget. I was told the bus drivers called my daughter's name and she didn't respond, though I don't know if she heard it being on a noisy bus or was too preoccupied looking out the bus window. (She is 4 years old after all...)

My wife is going to pursue this to the point where this teacher is unable to supervise JK or SK, because while my daughter's school can refuse to have her, she can still work at other schools supervising Jk or Sk


So this happened last year, too? Unacceptable that they have not taken action.

Funny you mention this, because when we asked if this has EVER happened there before, I was told by the VP, not during his time there, and he was there last year. So i'm guessing a bit of CYA is going on.


Call the Police ASAP if it happens again the next time just in case. You can always cancel the call after. Don't wait 30 minutes.

I mentioned this, and they have to make every attempt to find missing kids before police are called in as the police will ask what attempts where made to find her before dispatching a unit.


I would be in a deep rage if I were you. This wasn't something like losing your daughters indoor shoes or something. At the very least this sub needs to be fired.

I agree, yesterday it felt like somebody had kicked me in the stomach, and for me relief was what i felt immediately after. I'm angry, but part of the problem is I can't tell the person who dropped the ball directly
how angry I am and in the meantime everybody else at the school is making the appropriate noises.

I know on Monday we will be contacting the board, so that this substitute (who is a retired teacher btw) gets her comeuppance. The VP said he didn't know her name. (eyeroll)
This stonewalling on identifying the sub is starting to irritate me, and I'm giving the board a chance to deal with this sub before I go to the media. I am thinking of pressuring the board to put cameras in the appropriate places so that at least something good will come of this.

I wanted to thank you guys again for your support, and more importantly for confirming that even though there's no harm no foul, somebody needs to be taken to task for this nonsense.
(I am not a wave-maker, however my wife makes up for that lol)


At the end of his shift, he found me still on the bus and crying.

Something like this happened recently, except they went and found the child alone in the bus at the depot. Sorry that this happened to you, I find it horrific that a bus driver would chew out a 5 year old for an adult's negligence.

[ippon]

They are STILL not releasing her name to us.


what would you do with the name?

[Kuurgen]

what would you do with the name?

Flashing LED signs up and down the street. You know, the usual. :)

I just kinda like to know the name of the person, so that when i refer to them in any official correspondence , I don't have to use "Jane Doe" or "Supply Teacher in Question".

Perhaps, maybe it's putting a name to the person who put my child on a bus. Little things like that, I just like details, especially when they pertain to the well being of my child. What's funny is a group of 4 year olds can have her name but I can't. haha

Edit: I'm guessing you meant to ask, do you want her name for outing on the internet. Absolutely not.

[christiney29]

Flashing LED signs up and down the street. You know, the usual. :)

I just kinda like to know the name of the person, so that when i refer to them in any official correspondence , I don't have to use "Jane Doe" or "Supply Teacher in Question".

Perhaps, maybe it's putting a name to the person who put my child on a bus. Little things like that, I just like details, especially when they pertain to the well being of my child. What's funny is a group of 4 year olds can have her name but I can't. haha

Edit: I'm guessing you meant to ask, do you want her name for outing on the internet. Absolutely not.

To be honest I truly doubt the school will ever release the name of the teacher. The teacher's union is way too strong for that. Names are not released unless the teacher has been charged with something and their certificate has been revoked. In all other situations the teacher is simply referred to as "the member".

If you want to follow-up later to see if anything happened to the teacher, all investigations and disputes are listed in the teacher's magazine Professionally Speaking. It can be found here: http://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/september_2011/go/investigations.aspx

[ippon]

To be honest I truly doubt the school will ever release the name of the teacher. The teacher's union is way too strong for that. Names are not released unless the teacher has been charged with something and their certificate has been revoked. In all other situations the teacher is simply referred to as "the member".

If you want to follow-up later to see if anything happened to the teacher, all investigations and disputes are listed in the teacher's magazine Professionally Speaking. It can be found here: http://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/september_2011/go/investigations.aspx

ha, i like this one.

investigations
Case #1

Complaint: Purchasing alcohol for students and other inappropriate conduct
Outcome of investigation: Written caution

Based on information received from an employer, the Registrar filed a complaint alleging that, on encountering students in a licensed establishment, a member purchased alcoholic beverages for the students, some of whom were not of legal drinking age, and also that the member did not conduct himself with the students in a manner consistent with a teacher-student relationship while at the location. The member confirmed that he was indeed present at the establishment at the same time as the students but denied the allegations.

The panel reviewed the information provided, including information obtained from persons who were also present. The panel was of the view that the information before it was not sufficiently consistent to refer the matter to the Discipline Committee. However, the panel was of the opinion that the information raised sufficient concern that it was suitable to caution the member to maintain appropriate teacher-student professional boundaries and to use good judgment in and out of the school environment.

[cinnamontwist]

Here they put on school bus tags on the backpacks. We have several bus monitors to make sure kids get on the right bus. They are also have assigned seating on the bus.

They really need ways of communication for bus drivers. So the school has contact with them.

I'm amazed that they didn't have a assistant with the teacher too. In kindergarten we had the assistant or teacher take the kids to the bus loop. And the other would wait for the parents to pick up the kids.

That would have been pretty scary. So glad she was found safe.

[whiskeykat]

May I ask what school this is? My daughter just started J/K as well and she has to take the bus. Your story has freaked me out, to say the least.

[jcon]

That's a real breakdown of the system. So scary but I'm glad she's okay.

It's good to see that the school is making changes but it would concern me that supply teachers are given that much freedom without direct oversight. These are the places where you need checks-and-rechecks on everything. Security procedures should have been tighter.

Hopefully they will be for the future.

[Summer2003]

I have a four year old daughter too and your story scares me!
I wouldn't wait an hour .. If the school is doing door to door I would start calling 911.
And I would send your story to the news.. So other parents know this could happen!

[whiskeykat]

I should clarify that I am also in Ajax and that's why I'd like to know what school this is. We were thinking of finding alternatives to our daughter taking the school bus and this adds another dimension to our discussion.

[JessicaBAustin]

terrible! what is the school's name?

[bubble.tea]

... I got chewed out by the bus driver..
I also had a supply teacher who was so angry with us that she kept the entire class late, so a bunch of us missed our buses.
WOW....chewed out? really?

Stupid teachers keeping kids late to miss their busses. Really? How ego-trippiful. Shameful behaviour!

[tdotsaver]

When I was in grade 1 in Halifax (6 years old?), I went to a public school and one day my mom was late picking me up. I tried to walk home (note: many traffic lights away, we drove to school) by myself in the rain. My mom saw me on the way home. I still remember the rain on my face and trying desperately to be brave. Thank God kidnapping rarely happens in Canada.

And, in those days, I think a lot of kids just walked home by themselves and it wasn't a big deal. Not kids who are still in kindergarten, but things certainly have changed.

[hightech]

I would inform the board of education and even raise this as a concern with the media. Lots of times if it is just one parent who complains people like to keep things hush hush. I would try to contact the other parents in the class to see if this also happened to their kids (which probably did) and as a combined voice, contact the board, media relations and demand that best practices be updated for this situation.

You were a lot more civil then I would have been. That principle would have been on the floor if that type of BS happened to my kid. Overpaid and useless people.

[night_day]

Thanks for sharing this...absolutely scary. My daughter just started JK too and I think as someone else mentioned, I really need to teach her what is expected and not expected at the end of the day. The sub needs to get in deep crap over this :P

[ippon]

my girl's bus arrived 100 minutes late yesterday.
apparently a kid who wasn't even supposed to be on the bus got on and once the driver figured it out, instead of finishing his route and going back to school, he turned the bus around to drop off the kid back at school. i guess kids got agitated as well from being on the bus for so long, so they started acting up and they were given the 'pink slip' warnings.
gonna call the bus company today to find out what exactly happened.

[Alanaaaaa]

Wow... what a scary situation. I'm glad they found her... but how could this have happened??

As a supply teacher myself, I know how difficult it can be to dismiss the younger classes. It usually involves corralling them all to a certain door, and releasing them one-by-one to parents, nannies, older siblings, etc. A certain amount of trust has to lie with the kids in these cases, since I don't actually always know which kid goes with which adult. I ask the child before I send them along, and if they say that it's their parent/caregiver/sibling, etc, then I let them go. But I sometimes wonder if that's really enough when I'm dealing with the younger kids.

Ok, but this is a little off-topic really, since in your situation, you were there at the bell and they were already gone!! A lot of schools have slightly different dismissal times for kindergarten classes, but I assume from your post that you were there for your daughter's dismissal time and that they were just gone. As a supply teacher, I won't even dismiss a grade 8 class even 1 minute early for any reason. It is my job to care for them until that bell goes, even if I will just be letting them out the door when it rings, as is the case in the older grades. If nothing else, I would think that a teacher would wait for the bell to protect themselves and their own reputation, since if something happens, it's their responsibility.

Ok, on to a solution... well, the supply teacher should be reprimanded, no doubt about it. But, that is up to the school and the board and while you can request it, it's probably mostly beyond your control. The teacher will probably just be off at another school, and will hopefully have learned from the mistake.

Something else that would help: requiring all the kindergarten classes to have class lists, including photos and names, indicating which child goes with a parent/caregiver and which goes on a bus, etc. A list of names of who the child is allowed to leave with would help too. That way a supply teacher could ask the child "who is that?" and confirm who they are going with before they leave. This requires the supply teacher to actually follow through, but if all the info is laid out for them, there is no room for excuses.

Something that would help even more if you school will do it: have the lists, as I said above, and also have either the principal or VP come down for dismissal and assist in making sure the kids get the right places. It would only take 10 minutes or so and it would leave the responsibility on the administration rather than on a supply teacher who just doesn't know the kids in most cases.

Good luck, and I'm glad they found your daughter!

[Kuurgen]

Thanks all for your responses, since last post the school has instituted very visible tags on students indicating which ones walk and which ones ride the bus.
We've let this issue sit with us for the week, and I've left it up to my wife as to whether she contacts the board.

However, I must admit, it sounds like very little is going to happen to this teacher if we go to the board.




Something else that would help: requiring all the kindergarten classes to have class lists, including photos and names, indicating which child goes with a parent/caregiver and which goes on a bus, etc. A list of names of who the child is allowed to leave with would help too. That way a supply teacher could ask the child "who is that?" and confirm who they are going with before they leave. .

Part of the problem with this is you're also identifying the child. So a stranger could look at the picture of the student and then call them by name etc... It's why you don't put your child's name on the outside of a backpack.

They do have a pickup list, but they also base it on child's reaction to person when being picked up.


This requires the supply teacher to actually follow through, but if all the info is laid out for them, there is no room for excuses

Keep in mind that as soon as the bell rings they don't have to have any supervisory duties. When school's out, they are out. (so I've been told)

I know a lot of you reading this said I was fairly calm, I was barely keeping it together, and it wasn't anger. It was gut wrenching fear that some nutjob had my daughter. I feel kind of sheepish looking back on it, but in the heat of the moment I knew that in order to not slow things down, I had to try to keep my emotions in check. I just kept repeating to ALL the staff that the first few hours are absolutely critical in a missing child's recovery.

I had a few moments to myself with the gasping WTFs.

Time has passed and we can look at the situation and the followup, and true to their word they have retagged all the backpacks for each of the kids, however I just don't feel comfortable naming the school openly, as the staff on hand are not the ones to blame, though the bus monitors assumed that the teacher was doing her job and weren't as wary as they should have been.

I do have to followup with my wife as we've been busy with the day to day since this event, but I will keep you posted.

I know some of you are in Ajax, however this was not an issue with kids getting off the bus, it was with putting my daughter ON the bus. LOL

PM me if you have any questions, I will try to answer, but as we haven't yet taken any more steps I want to make sure I give the board a chance to deal with this. Not fair for me to name names if I don't
give them a chance to deal with it.

[Happy13178]

Thanks all for your responses, since last post the school has instituted very visible tags on students indicating which ones walk and which ones ride the bus.
We've let this issue sit with us for the week, and I've left it up to my wife as to whether she contacts the board.

However, I must admit, it sounds like very little is going to happen to this teacher if we go to the board.

Part of the problem with this is you're also identifying the child. So a stranger could look at the picture of the student and then call them by name etc... It's why you don't put your child's name on the outside of a backpack.

They do have a pickup list, but they also base it on child's reaction to person when being picked up.

Keep in mind that as soon as the bell rings they don't have to have any supervisory duties. When school's out, they are out. (so I've been told)

I know a lot of you reading this said I was fairly calm, I was barely keeping it together, and it wasn't anger. It was gut wrenching fear that some nutjob had my daughter. I feel kind of sheepish looking back on it, but in the heat of the moment I knew that in order to not slow things down, I had to try to keep my emotions in check. I just kept repeating to ALL the staff that the first few hours are absolutely critical in a missing child's recovery.

I had a few moments to myself with the gasping WTFs.

Time has passed and we can look at the situation and the followup, and true to their word they have retagged all the backpacks for each of the kids, however I just don't feel comfortable naming the school openly, as the staff on hand are not the ones to blame, though the bus monitors assumed that the teacher was doing her job and weren't as wary as they should have been.

I do have to followup with my wife as we've been busy with the day to day since this event, but I will keep you posted.

I know some of you are in Ajax, however this was not an issue with kids getting off the bus, it was with putting my daughter ON the bus. LOL

PM me if you have any questions, I will try to answer, but as we haven't yet taken any more steps I want to make sure I give the board a chance to deal with this. Not fair for me to name names if I don't
give them a chance to deal with it.

Call the superintendant and the media. You're being a lot more patient than I would be in your position. LMK if you want the primary contacts for Toronto's main newspapers and I'll send it along.

[deblis]

The same thing happened to us just the opposite. Our 4 year olds first day of JK and takes the school bus home, which is a 5 min bus ride. We we're waiting for the bus, the bus arrives and no daughter. We started freaking out! My husband drives to the school and I run home with my 1 year old to call the school. I was thinking my daughter got off at the wrong stop, my heart was beating fast and I was shaking. It turned out the teacher forgot to put her on the school bus and my husband found my daughter sitting in the office. So I know how you felt. Thank god both our kids are safe and sound!

[Kuurgen]

My husband drives to the school and I run home with my 1 year old to call the school. I was thinking my daughter got off at the wrong stop, my heart was beating fast and I was shaking.

Sorry to hear you had a similar experience, it's really terrifying when something like this happens. Not something I'd wish on any parent, the fear that one of your children may be in grave danger. I can't imagine the fear and the horror for parents who's children have been abducted.