CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — The mother of a local first grader is calling for safety improvements at a Clayton County School after she said her 7-year-old daughter was able to leave the school unsupervised and wandered out onto the playground alone.
Adrian Jones was picking up her daughter from Kemp Primary School in Clayton County in February when she said she saw her daughter on the playground: alone.
Her daughter Ava has Down Syndrome and is nonverbal. She wants the school to take more accountability not only for special needs students but for all students in the district.
For two months, she said she's been trying to get answers from the school about what happened. She said she just wants to be heard.
"I was in such shock and horror that I was basically traumatized," Jones said. "You go into this numbness that lets you cope with that minute. And I couldn't feel the full effects until I went home that night."
The playground is not fenced in and sits a couple of hundred yards from the main road.
"This is a primary school, these are little kids. There is no one over the age of 8. And if a bus was coming in, there's just no way they could see them. There's just no way," she said.
She said her daughter had to lift the latch on her class door, pass 11 classrooms, and get out the back door before wandering out onto the playground by herself.
"The safety issue that happened at her school and happened to her, it has less to do with her diagnosis and more to do with a school safety issue," she said.
Jones sent emails to the school's principal and the district outlining safety improvements she wants to see at the school. These improvements she wants to see include additional classroom latches, a hall monitor, a fenced-in playground, heavier doors, and door signage.
"What if the school had signs on the door that said STOP! She knows what that means, what she's supposed to do," she said.
A district spokesperson released the following statement Monday:
"District and school officials have indicated that the incident was not one of security and non-supervision. We take the safety of our students very seriously. We ensure it daily. At no time was the student in danger. We continue to monitor safety plans as needed and we are confident that all of our schools are safe on a daily basis. The school’s principal and team met with the parent to discuss her concerns on the day of the incident. It should be noted that, to our knowledge, there has never been a request for a fence on this campus. We ask that parents please share concerns with principals and provide them an opportunity to address as appropriate."
However, Jones said that's not enough until the school makes safety improvements.
"There's been plenty of times that just to calm my anxiety, I will drive by the school. I don't get out, but I just drive by to make sure there's no little head on the playground. Because as a parent, that's what I found," she said.
Jones plans to file a complaint with the board of education about what happened. She said she wants to protect other children as well as her own.