When a South Carolina mother sent her son to school, she didn’t expect to receive a phone call before the day was done that would result in so many uncomfortable questions and confusion. Assuming her boy was in class all day, she soon learned that wasn’t the case when the school admitted to making a sickening mistake involving a strange man.
A group of students from Edisto Primary School in the town of Cordova were leaving the gymnasium and headed back to class when 65-year-old Joseph Fuller showed up. The man went right for the unnamed child in question, gave him a hug, and said he was there to pick him up from school early. The child didn’t know the man, but he was too confused to question it and went with him to the office, where the guy successfully signed him out of school.
According to KPLCTV, a school administrator asked the boy at checkout if the man he was with is his grandad, to which he simply said “yes,” and that was good enough for the school to release him to this stranger. Fuller’s wife was in the car with them and handed the boy a Happy Meal from the front seat without ever turning around and looking at him. The three of them drove back to the “grandad’s” house, and when they walked in, Fuller’s wife realized what was going on.
Fuller had gone to the school to pick up his grandson and thought the boy leaving the gym was him when in fact it was someone else’s child. The school didn’t even think twice about it when he checked the wrong kid out and left campus with him until they got back the man’s house and his wife noticed something different about the child’s mouth that wasn’t the same as her grandson’s.
“He had a tooth missing in the front, and I know my grandson did not have a tooth missing in the front,” the woman said. “Immediately, I brought him back to school, and I am very sorry,” Fuller added, when he realized the mistake and took him back to campus.
While the child’s mother was able to quickly forgive the terrifying oversight, acknowledging the similarities between her son and Fuller’s grandson, the boy’s father, Darrin Pressley, felt much differently. “If they didn’t bring him back, my son could’ve been gone,” Pressley said. “It’s gross negligence on the school’s part. My thing is, you know, have a prevention so this could never happen again.”
Fuller feels horrible about taking the wrong child, profusely apologizing for his part in the mistake, but the school should feel just as bad, if not worse.
Without positively identifying who you are sending a child away with and why, taking a scared and confused kid’s word for it instead, they potentially put him in grave danger. This could have ended much worse than it did since it opens the door to predators to come and take whichever child they want.
In this day and age, anyone responsible for children must be diligent in protecting them. It’s appalling how cavalier the school was about checking a child out with someone other than his parents, and they have since vowed to correct their procedures.
However, it shouldn’t take an accident like this to realize that their system was flawed. They are lucky that it didn’t end in tragedy. If I was this boy’s mother, I wouldn’t be as quick to accept the oversight and would question what other security flaws exist.
