Frantic Mom Dropped Her Son Off At Kindergarten Only To Learn He Was Absent All Day & The School Failed To Contact Her About It
She was emotional after learning he'd been missing all day.
LeManna | Shutterstock A mom found herself living her worst nightmare after dropping her son off at school only to return hours later to learn that he was missing from parent's pickup.
In a TikTok video, mom Yessii documented the terrifying ordeal in multiple parts and admitted that she wouldn't wish this feeling upon her "worst enemy" after believing that her son was legitimately missing from school.
She dropped him off at kindergarten only to learn he was missing all day, and no one reached out to tell her.
In Yessii's initial video, she recorded herself walking into her son's school at 1 p.m. for pickup after dropping him off at 7 a.m. To her surprise, she was told by school administrators that her son was absent and had been all day despite her having watched him go into the school, which meant he'd been lost on their watch.
A staff member could be heard asking if she was there to pick up her son. When she answered that she was, Yessii was informed that the school had marked him absent. "This is unacceptable," Yessii said through tears.
"I drop off my kid ten minutes before eight o'clock, and I go pick him up at 1. His teacher's the first one bringing out all the other little kids, and I don't see my child," Yessii explained in a storytime video.
At first, she assumed he was in the bathroom or lagging behind. Going up to the teacher, she recalled asking about her son's whereabouts. That's when she learned that her son had been missing all day.
"They're trying to figure out where my son is at. It took them a while to come and get me to let me in the office. Mind you, I was sobbing the first day of school because they don't let us walk our children inside the classroom for 'safety purposes,' right?" she recalled.
She's in the school's office, rightfully freaking out because she knows without a doubt that he walked right into the building when she dropped him off.
One of the school staff started calling all of the kindergarten teachers to inquire about Yessii's son, which only frustrated the young mom even more because she felt there should have been more urgency when it came to looking for him.
She finally reunited with her son after finding him on the playground.
Thinking of every awful possibility, including her son leaving the school and wandering on his own or someone having taken him without any of the teachers or other staff members noticing, Yessii decided to take matters into her own hands.
Running out of the school, she went to the playground, beginning to search for him herself.
Calling his name, Yessii noticed a supervisor on the playground looking after some of the kids who were playing. She immediately went up to her to ask if she'd seen her son or if he'd been playing with some of the other kids and maybe wandered off.
Thankfully, as Yessii was talking to the supervisor, she caught sight of a child bawling his eyes out and running toward her, and she was able to finally breathe once she realized that it was her son.
Running up to her son, Yessii filmed their reunion as she hugged him, both of them in tears and clearly emotional over the entire experience. She learned that the reason none of the teachers could find him was because he was having P.E. class with a first-grade class instead of being at the front of the school for pickup with the kindergarten kids at 1 p.m.
Kids are absent from school at historically high rates, which could explain why the administration didn't react hastily.
Although not an excuse by any means, "absenteeism," as it's been coined, has reached historic numbers, according to the New York Times. Since the pandemic, there has been a shift in priorities, likely due to remote learning, and school is seen as optional instead of necessary.
Of course, that absolutely does not mean Yessii shouldn't have been contacted immediately when administrators thought her son hadn't come to class that day. But the number of absences in recent years has certainly diluted the urgency of checking in.
In any school, if a parent shows up and their child has been declared "absent" or lost, even though that parent knows for a fact they entered the school building, school administrators and employees should do everything in their power to make sure that child is fine.
It is unacceptable that Yessii felt they weren't and was breaking down, clearly in distress.
Her son's whereabouts should've been closely monitored, and while teachers and school staff are put through the absolute wringer when it comes to dealing with parents and unruly kids, there's also a level of trust that they'll be able to at least make sure they're accounted for.
Luckily, this story had a happy ending, but it is definitely a cause for concern.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.