School leaves 5yo in fast food toilet
A five-year-old boy has been left behind during an after-hours school excursion and forced to walk to his grandparent's house.
Adelaide Now reports a mother is outraged after discovering her young son was forgotten in a Hungry Jack’s toilet in Mitcham, after going to the cinema with his school last month.
The boy, now six, was distraught when he realised his school group had left without him. He was forced to walk across several roads and a railway line to get to his grandparents' house.
The mother is livid at the duty of care failure, saying: "They should have one carer for every eight children but they had just two for 27 kids".
“He cried all the way there, he said he felt as though he was not important enough to be remembered,” the mother said.
She said she was only informed about the incident by her mother-in-law, rather than a school supervisor.
Since the incident, the boy has reportedly been suffering from restless sleep and often wakes calling for his parents.
The parents are removing him from school at the end of the week as they "cannot entrust the school to adequately care for our children".
The school admitted safety standards had not been met and the incident has been reported to the Education Minister Jay Weatherill.
The Department of Education and Children's Services said the school had apologised to the boy's parents and police were contacted at the time of the incident.
"The school and the OSHC unit acknowledge that the incident should not have occurred, has apologised to the student and family and offered ongoing support," a spokesperson for the Department of Education and Children’s Services said.
DECS are currently reviewing the circumstances of the incident, including student-staff ratios on the day.
