Mom demands answers after 5-year-old son walks out of school, wanders onto subway platform
CHELSEA, Manhattan (WABC) -- The mother of a 5-year old kindergarten student who walked out of class and was later found on a subway platform is demanding answers from New York City Department of Education officials.
"I want justice and accountability," Mildred Deckard said. "That's it. I thank God that my son is alright and that he is safe."
She is thankful that someone saw her son, 5-year old Synciere, after he wandered away from PS 11 on West 21st Street around 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
"Thank you to the kind person who found my son and helped him," she said.
Synciere left his kindergarten class and walked right out of the school without anyone noticing him, before it's believed he headed east on West 21st Street, walking up to Eight Avenue. He then went north to West 23rd Street and entered the C and F subway station.
Once in the station, he is thought to have ducked under the turnstile and walked out onto the platform. There, he was spotted by a good Samaritan who called police.
According to the National Action Network, which is working with the family, the boy is supposed to get special attention and special service while at school.
"It is beyond disturbing that the failure of personnel, the failure of infrastructure, and the failure of policy allowed for little Synciere to make his way all the way to the train station by himself," said Kirsten John Foy, the Executive Director of Arc of Justice.
The family and National Action Network officials are demanding answers from the school, the district and from the Department of Education.
"This serious incident was immediately reported to NYPD, and the student was swiftly and safely found," DOE Press Secretary Miranda Barbot said in a statement. "We've suspended a substitute paraprofessional without pay pending the outcome of an investigation and will take any additional follow-up action necessary while continuing to provide support to the school."
The statement provided little comfort to Deckard.
"Anything could have happened to him from the time he left the school until the time he went to the train station on that platform," she said. "I am upset. And I feel for his safety."
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