It's very hard to say exactly how Angelo Geremia left his school all by himself Wednesday, but what we do know is that some time after 10:30 a.m. at P.S. 229, the 5-year-old kindergartener pushed open the big doors and walked outside.
He walked the equivalent of six large blocks in the pouring rain back to his house in Maspeth, where he began screaming.
Meanwhile, back at the school no one even noticed.
His mother Georgina Geremia said that she called the school and told them that she was at work and her son was now at home.
His mother was panic stricken and so was little Angelo when he realized no one was at his house.
Both police and EMS were called to the house and they eventually took Angelo to Elmhurst Hospital where he was checked out, just in case he was hurt during what's probably at least a 20-minute walk from the school.
"He was drenched, my neighbor said she was hearing it for 10 minutes, the screaming," Georgina Geremia said.
Angelo told his mother that a staff member put him in a time out all alone, and then he left.
But the Department of Education insists Angelo asked to go to the bathroom during lunch and never came back.
"Whether it's their story that he went to the bathroom, or that he got the time out and nobody was watching, nobody was watching a 5-year-old," Georgina Geremia said.
It leaves so many other unanswered questions.
The boy says that he did not see a guard at the door.
The family wants their questions answered as soon as possible.
"I'm really, really upset. I don't even know how to feel, to take him to school tomorrow," Georgina Geremia said.
"Are you going to stay in school tomorrow?" Eyewitness News asked Angelo.
"Yes," Angelo said.
"You promise us you will stay in school?" Eyewitness News asked.
"Yes," Angelo said.
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