Kindergartener with special needs wanders from DeKalb County School

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - A DeKalb County mother is calling for better security and oversight at an elementary school after staff lost her special needs son Monday.

The incident happened at Columbia Elementary School in unincorporated Decatur.

Peggy Scott sat down with FOX 5's Marissa Mitchell after the incident and detailed the situation.

"I was just frantic and scared. I didn't know what to think," Scott told Mitchell.

She said her five-year-old son, who has Down syndrome, managed to walk out of a gym.
She added his teacher left him with other staff and students while she took another child to the restroom. When the adults realized her child was missing, the faculty and staff started searching
the campus and the surrounding neighborhood. She said a teacher eventually found her son after he knocked on the door of a woman's house. She believes he was gone from the school for 30 minutes to an hour.

"[They have] a good principal. He cried along with us and the teachers cried," Scott stressed. "I could tell they were really scared and hurt...I'm not just going to blame it on the teachers...the security around our school is awful."

The mother is now calling for the district to put better fencing and security on the property.

DeKalb County Schools Superintendent R. Stephen Green sent Mitchell the following statement:

"An instance like this, when a particularly vulnerable student receives less than effective oversight, is completely unacceptable. DCSD will make immediate and wholesale changes to the oversight of this student to ensure the appropriate care is being rendered. Further, I have directed staff to review the circumstances leading up to this event, and to make the appropriate corrections immediately. We have also made contact with the student's parents and have scheduled a meeting this week to discuss different support and oversight options."