Townsville mother tells of shocking moment when her son’s school mistakenly reported him missing

A Townsville mother has questioned how her son’s high school mistakenly reported him missing when he was sitting in class, sending her into a frenzy of “terror”.

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A TOWNSVILLE mother has questioned how her son’s high school mistakenly reported him missing when he was sitting in class, sending her into a frenzy of “terror”.

Douglas mum Kristine Forster spent more than two hours desperately searching for her 12-year-old son after William Ross State High School called on Monday afternoon to say he’d disappeared.

Ms Forster claims they told her he’d been missing for about 30 minutes before their phone call about 2.15pm, which spiralled her into a panic.

“He doesn’t have a mobile phone, so I couldn’t call him,” she said.

“That is so scary … wondering where he is, who’s got him and what happened.”

Ms Forster said the school told her they had looked around the entire school twice, but couldn’t find him.

She also started her own search, but there was no sign of him.

Her worry finally eased when her son walked in the door from what he thought was a normal day of school.

“He walked around the corner when he got off the bus, like he always does.

“He had the dumbest look on his face and had no idea what was going on.”

Kristine Forster is furious at her son's school for "wrongly" claiming the 12yo had gone missing from school. Picture: Alix Sweeney

Ms Forster’s son told her he had never left school.

He even pulled out his workbook to show his mother notes from his final class that afternoon.

“To have that go through your mind, for him to have nowhere to go, I was frantic.

“To tell a parent not once but twice to say that he’s missing … where’s the duty of care? I could have had police called and everything.”

Ms Forster said she didn’t receive any check-in calls from the school on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.

In a statement the Department of Education said the school was reviewing their processes to make sure this didn’t happen again.

“Like all Queensland state schools, William Ross State High School considers the safety and wellbeing of its students as its top priority,” the statement read.

“The school contacted a parent immediately after being unable to locate a student in his regularly timetabled class.

“The student had changed his timetable that morning and was safely in his rescheduled class at the time. He was located by the school leadership team shortly afterwards.

“The school is reviewing its processes for timetabling to ensure no further incidents of this nature in the future.”

Originally published as Townsville mother tells of shocking moment when her son’s school mistakenly reported him missing