By Johnna Pinholster
VALDOSTA — Last Thursday, Cynthia Blum’s 6-year-old grandson walked out the front doors of S.L. Mason and off the campus when school dismissed.
He passed Principal John Davis who asked him where he was going. The 6-year-old responded that he was a car rider, Blum said.
Satisfied with the answer, the principal let him go.
Instead of getting in a car, he walked off campus and eventually made it to Alden Avenue, where a good Samaritan picked him up, she said.
Since her grandson started at S.L. Mason Elementary School, his records state he should get on the bus bound for the YMCA after school program.
“My husband or myself never changed that order,” she said.
Blum and her husband are the guardians of the 6-year-old.
She discovered what happened when her husband called that afternoon to tell her a strange lady had brought their grandson home.
The woman, a day-care worker, later told Blum it took her about 20 minutes to convince her grandson to get in the car. The woman had seen the boy on Alden about to cross the intersection and decided to stop and ask him where he was going, Blum said.
The boy had already crossed Baytree by himself when the woman stopped him, Blum said.
“We’ve told him to never get in the car with a stranger,” Blum said. “We’ve explained to him that there are good people and bad people; she said she explained that she was a daycare worker and helped children.”
The boy eventually got into the car when the woman told him he could give her directions to the YMCA and that he could ride with the windows down.
She ended up taking the boy home and explained the situation to his grandfather, Blum said.
The next morning, Blum and her husband went to S.L. Mason to try to find an explanation as to what happened.
“I’m outraged they took a 6-year-old’s word about being a car rider. I haven’t changed anything on his papers to be a car rider,” she said.
Her grandson should have been stopped and taken to the office until they figured out where he was supposed to be, Blum said.
“They gave no explanation other than ‘oh I’m sorry,’” she said. “I’m upset they let my 6-year-old grandson just walk off campus.”
When her son was 12, he was hit by a train and killed. When she learned what happened to her grandson, all manner of dark scenarios played through her head, she said.
“What if the wrong person would have picked him up, or he was hit by a car trying to cross another road?” Blum said.
She said she has not been able to thank enough the woman that picked her grandson up and brought him safely home.
This is an incident the Valdosta City School System doesn’t ever want to happen, Superintendent Dr. Bill Cason said.
“We double checked all of our procedures and will initiate a tag system so we know exactly which way they (the children) are supposed to go,” Cason said. “It is something we will do districtwide to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
