Two boys missing from Hahndorf Primary vacation care service for more than six hours
A mother says police told her they would be “lucky to find these boys alive” after her son and his friend left vacation care unnoticed.
Education
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A mother has told of her horror after her five-year-old son and his best friend went missing from an Adelaide Hills vacation care service for more than six hours, without staff noticing.
The boys left the service at Hahndorf Primary School through a gate in the morning on Monday, January 16.
When mother Brooke turned up to collect her son, she found the boys were nowhere to be found, 7 NEWS reported.
“I instantly thought ‘my kid’s been abducted’ … my kid could’ve been sexually assaulted,” she said.
“Then the policeman came and looks at me and says ‘sorry’ and then … says ‘we’ll be lucky to find these boys alive’.”
The boys had headed for their homes nearby but found them locked, so went to one of their grandmother’s houses. Nobody was home but they let themselves in through an unlocked door.
They were found there hours later.
“(They were) dehydrated but they didn’t really understand the scariness or the shock of the situation,” Brooke told 7 NEWS.
A letter from principal Ngari Boehm to OSHC families two days later, obtained by The Advertiser, said police and the Education Department were “notified as soon as the service became aware of the situation”.
“Additional staff immediately attended the site to support OSHC staff, SAPOL and the affected families,” the letter said.
“The critical incident is ongoing and we are stringently reviewing our policies and procedures. “We are taking this incident seriously and immediate, mid and long-term actions and consequences will result.”
Opposition education spokesman John Gardner said it was “absolutely heartbreaking to conceive of the idea that your child is left somewhere they’re supposed to be safe for six hours and it not be noticed that they’re missing”.
“There’s clearly been a series of awful human errors …,” he said, adding parents rightly expected that “gates are going to be shut and rolls are going to be taken”.
“The best will in the world and the best policies in the world are only as good as how well procedures are followed.”
Mr Gardner said the letter should have been sent to all parents who had used the service that week, not just those whose children were on site that day.
Education Minister Blair Boyer told The Advertiser: “An investigation is being undertaken by the Department for Education and the communication to families will form part of this.
“The Education Standards Board has been notified and will also conduct an investigation.”
OSCH services can cater for families outside of school communities as well as their regular students.
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