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PiscesDown Syndrome Child Went Missing from School
CBS News: ALLEN, TX -- The parents of Christina Borders have been keeping the 12-year-old close to their side since Friday. That's when the child, who has Down syndrome, walked out of class at Curtis Middle School.
Teachers and the principal searched for Christina for up to an hour or more. School officials conducted their search without contacting Christina's parents.
"I was really in shock and part of me is still in shock," said Christina's mother, Trish Borders.
Trish said she waited for her daughter at a bus stop, not knowing that a search for the missing girl was still underway.
Nearly an hour after classes dismissed, the Curtis Middle School principal found Christina a half mile away at a Wal-Mart store. The girl was alone and uninjured.
"It's very distressing thinking that she could have been picked up, kidnapped, hit by a car, whatever," Christina's father, Gregg Borders, said adamantly.
Christina's parents have filed complaints with the Allen Police Department and the Texas Education Agency. They accuse the school of trying to cover up the incident by avoiding contacting them until Christina was found.
"They knew I was waiting for her to get off the bus," claims Trish. "It's almost as if a choice was made not to call."
No one with the Allen Independent School District responded to a CBS 11 News request for comment.
Christina is safe at home but her parents say she won't be going back to school until they get a proper explanation.
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- 3 Comments
I work at a special ed school, and am stunned at how the teachers and aides don’t have very much control over the kids just walking away. They lose kids all the time, and find them again pretty quickly (within about 5 minutes usually). Crazy. I would hate to be a parent worrying about a special needs child getting hurt or taken advantage of by going out into the community alone.
Curtis teachers and staff do a phenomenal job of caring for the safety and welfare of (while educating) over 700 students who come through their doors every day.
They care for students who have loving, attentive parents and good homes. They also nuture many students without those two things (good parents and good homes), things which should be a given…but which are all too often luxuries in today’s world.
Curtis teachers buy kids shoes, backpacks and lunches with their own money and without complaining, because they have a heart for kids.
Grumbling and griping attitudes are gently but vigorously squashed at Curtis. Every once in a while a teacher who does not give 100%, or doesn’t seem to love kids as much as they should, comes on board. But they do not last long at all.
They come early and leave late to do their very best for the children entrusted to their care. Too often they give the only attention and positive compliments some students will receive that day.
They comfort kids who are scared, sad, or anxious, and who are sent to school unprepared, hungry, and tired.
They fret and worry about all of their “kids” …and here is a secret…that is just how they love and think of them. That they are not just your kids, but THEIRS, too.
And they love their kids equally. On second thought, that may not exactly be the truth. The quiet ones who struggle and are picked on, or the ones without parents or friends, or who have special challenges…these kids they love a little bit more.
They revel in their students triumphs as if they were their own, and I have seen them beam with pride on many occasions at some new milestone or accomplishment.
Hold teachers to high standards, as you should. But please…remember to be as swift and vociferous with your praise for the loving and selfless work they do each day as you are to cut them down when they err, as they will, and as will every one of us.
If the parents had the option of keeping her home in the first place, perhaps they should have all along.
This is the 9th (and last, thank God) year I’ve had a child in the public school system.
Public schools are barely able to properly take care of “average” kids. My 2 are gifted. I won’t bore you all with the details of how lame a job the public system handled them. “Special needs” kids - the public system doesn’t give a crap about them either.