Fort Bend Independent School District is once again addressing how a student wandered off Rosa Parks Elementary School recently, nearly three months after a 4-year-old boy had to be rescued by a neighbor.
Just an hour before school let out Thursday, Alexa Ramirez, 7, showed up at her home, ringing the doorbell.
She had just walked more than half a mile from Rosa Parks Elementary, alone.
“My first reaction was ‘WTF,'” Alexa’s father, Beto Ramirez, told reporters. “My second reaction was ‘is she OK?'”
He said anything could’ve happened to his daughter during that 15-minute walk home.
“That is completely outrageous and unacceptable,” he said. “I told the principal we need an explanation because today we could’ve been planning the funeral of our daughter.”
The district said the child was called to the front office by mistake after a parent of another child with the same first name came to pick up their child.
At the same time, a classmate in the child’s same room was also called for pickup. Both walked to the office, and when the parent and the classmate left the building, the child walked out too.
The child continued alone, and walked until she reached home, where her mother was present.
Ramirez told reporters that the district calling it a mistake does not make it OK.
“Especially when it comes to children. It could be a mistake, but if it happened recently, that should’ve been fixed,” Ramirez said.
This is the second time this has happened on Rosa Parks’ campus, with the first happening almost three months ago in September.
At that time, the 4-year-old student followed a friend in the “walkers” line instead of being directed to an after-school program or extended day, and walked two blocks away from campus.
The child knocked on a woman’s door and nodded to her that he was lost. The woman took notice of the child’s tag on his backpack, letting adults know he should not have been allowed off campus.
Employees were unaware that the child was missing when the woman called the school.
After the incident, school leaders said they began tightening procedures and processes.
The district promised it wouldn’t happen again.
“Get your act together,” Ramirez said. “Get your act together. I want to know what changes they’ve made.”
In a statement, Fort Bend ISD said, “Clearly, there is more work to be done. School leaders will go back to the drawing board to reexamine dismissal systems and early releases requested by parents, and they will provide more robust training for staff and teachers.”
The school district apologized and said fixing this problem is one of the schools’ top priorities.
The Ramirez family told that Fort Bend ISD police are now investigating.
“We just want a thorough investigation, and explanation, and that’s it,” Ramirez said.