Two kindergartners walked right out of their classroom, then ran out of their Philadelphia elementary school on Wednesday, wandered around for more than an hour and were found near a SEPTA stop about a mile away.
What happened during the time that Zavier McIntyre and Ameen Smith were gone from the M. Hall Stanton School at N. 16th and W. Cumberland Streets despends on who you ask.
The boy's families say they got on SEPTA's Broad Street Line subway while the school district claims they walked all the way to Broad Street and Allegheny Avenue.
Zavier, 6, and Ameen, 5, ran out of the school around 11:30 a.m., according to the Philadelphia School District.
Their teacher admitted she saw the boys walk out of her classroom. Not wanting to leave her other students, the teacher called the front office, but the school district said there was no one at the front door of the school to stop the little boys. A parent volunteer was supposed to be manning the post.
The boys' mothers exclusively told NBC10's Lu Ann Cahn that they only reason the school knew the boys weren't in class was that they called the school after a neighbor said they saw the boys walking down the street.
"To say that my son's there even though you don't know if he's there or not," said Zavier's mother Marsheedah Thomas. "I had to call you to make sure, to see that my son was there."
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
The mothers searched frantically for their sons for about an hour.
A school district police officer found the boys safe and sound about a mile from the school.
The boys were eventually reunited with their parents back at the school. Their families are upset and want to know how this could happen.
"These kids walked right past the office out the front door and nobody seen it," said grandmother Phylis Thomas. "Something needs to be done in that school."
No one with the school would talk to NBC10, but a school district spokesman said that an investigation was underway. The families want better answers than what they've heard so far, to ensure this doesn't happen again.
"We are following up with the school district and the police district because this cannot happen to nobody's kid," Ameen's mom Kishia Smith said.
