A Georgia mother came home from work to find her 9-year-old autistic son sleeping outside on the porch of their home after having been dropped off early from school, Atlanta’s WSB-TV 2 reported.
Erica Satterwhite told teachers and staff at Sawyer Road Elementary School in Marietta, about 17 miles northwest of Atlanta, that her son Caleb would be attending an after school program and that she would be there to pick him up.
When she arrived at the school however, they said he never showed up that day.
“I made sure to make them aware that he was to stay in school, so I don’t understand,” Satterwhite told WSB-TV.
She rushed home and found her son lying on their porch overheated.
She said the bus driver dropped him off after school and estimates he had been there alone for three hours.
When WSB-TV approached the superintendent of Marietta City schools, Dr. Grant Rivera, he admitted they had made a mistake.
“I’m very aware of the opportunities where we should have seized to do better,” he told the station.
He said they have reviewed their procedures and will go “above and beyond” to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.
“At this point, based on my investigation, I do not believe that there is any personnel action that needs to be taken,” he said.
However this is the second time this has happened. Satterwhite said that last May her son was also dropped off early at their home by a bus driver.
“They need to take this seriously because somebody’s child could end up dead, hurt, or anything,” Satterwhite told WSB-TV.
