Last week at Port Royal Primary School, serious concerns were raised after a seven-year-old student was reportedly left unattended during a physical education class.
According to information obtained by TNN News, the child was seated alone on a bench at the front of the school after becoming separated from her PE class. More than an hour later, an unidentified adult male was seen walking across the school grounds, engaging the child in conversation. The child then left the campus with the man.
Thankfully, authorities confirm that the child was later found safe and unharmed thanks to a member of the public that knew the little girl mother. However, advocates say the incident highlights a critical lapse in supervision and school safety protocols.
Debbie Ray Rivers of SCARS, (Saving Children and Revealing Secrets) a organization that advocates for the protection of children, expressed alarm over the situation, emphasizing how easily the outcome could have been far more tragic. There are predators, and pedophiles on our streets with no with no guidelines on where they can go and cannot go. This situation could have been completely a different outcome.
“As advocates of children, this is a concern. It really is. There was a huge risk here,” Rivers said. “We should all be very grateful today that this conversation isn’t going in a different direction—asking where is she and what has happened to her.”
Rivers stressed that while no harm occurred, the incident must be treated as a warning.
“When we think in terms of prevention, we have to ask what can be done to make sure this never happens again. “We were very lucky this time—but luck is not a safety plan.”
Advocacy groups are calling on schools to review supervision policies, accountability procedures, and campus security measures to ensure children are never left vulnerable.
The incident remains under review. The ministry of education and the school officials have not yet released a statement regarding any disciplinary action or policy changes.
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