3-year-old leaves kindergarten unnoticed to walk home alone
Petah Tikvah city issues new guidelines after boy leaves grounds unhindered, crosses busy intersection alone
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The Petah Tikva municipality has issued urgent new guidelines to its kindergartens after a three-year-old boy was allowed to walk out of his school alone because he decided he wanted to go home.
The child’s parents were shocked to discover him standing outside the family home, half an hour after he was dropped off at the kindergarten, the boy’s father, identified only as Shlomi, told Israel Radio.
They blamed a combination of negligence and a series of coincidences for the event that thankfully ended well, after a bystander guided the boy home after he crossed an intersection by himself.
The couple’s 13-year-old had been tasked with taking his three-year-old brother to kindergarten at 7:30 a.m. The two arrived at the building to find that the kindergarten teacher had taken a vacation day without notifying parents.
The assistant who had been left in charge was sick, so the teen brought his brother to a kindergarten next door in the same complex.
After the teacher there accepted the child, the older brother left to head to his own school.
The boy apparently did not receive any attention from the new teacher and decided that he wanted to go back to his old kindergarten, leaving the building unnoticed, Shlomie said.
The boy told his father that when he returned to his familiar pre-school, “it was dark.” It was then that the 3-year-old decided that he would walk home on his own.
After crossing a major Petah Tikva junction, he was spotted by an older man, who picked him up and brought him home to his mother using directions from the boy.
The father criticized the teacher at the neighboring school for agreeing to take the child in only to allow him to wander off unnoticed.
“And to the (school’s) guard — where were you?” asked the father, demanding an answer to explain how his child was able to walk through an unguarded gate.
In response to the incident, the municipality released updated guidelines that were passed along to kindergartens throughout the city. They stipulated that preschools will not be allowed to open their gates if there is not, at least, an assistant teacher present. In addition, no child will be allowed to be accepted in a different kindergarten without a prior arrangement between teachers at each of the kindergartens.
The Times of Israel Community.