Mother in Deroche calls for policy change after daughter fled school

A mother is calling for a policy change at her daughter’s former elementary school in Deroche after a frightening incident last year.

Ashley Reid says her daughter, Hartlee, has autism and attended kindergarten at Deroche Elementary last September. During the second week of school, Reid claims Hartlee was playing on the swings at the playground when the recess bell rang, but she didn’t want to stop playing.

“She tugged away a little bit. And so their policy that they have there is if they tug away, they allow it, and if she runs away, they kind of just follow. But they don’t really grab them and lead them back into the school,” said Reid.

After a few minutes, Reid says Hartlee darted away from a staff member following her to an exit leading to the Lougheed Highway. Instead of stopping her, Reid claims the staff member went the other way to collect a vehicle to continue following Hartlee.

“By the time they got to her….she was at the stop sign right before the intersection.”

Reid says staff managed to cut Hartlee off just before the stop sign and tried calling her name to get her into the vehicle.

“They didn’t have to grab her violently, but they could have grabbed her by the hand and just brought her into the car,” said Reid.

After the incident, Reid says she pulled Hartlee from the school over safety concerns. Reid says she would like to see a policy change at the school, as she has heard from other parents who went through a similar situation.

“Right now, we don’t really have a lot of trust in the school system, so we actually decided we were going to homeschool her. I hope maybe one day she can return to the public school system…but for her own safety we had to pull her.”

In an email, Superintendent Angus Wilson with the Mission School District could not directly comment on the incident, but says all schools have measures in place for students that are a flight risk as student safety is a priority.

In a statement, BC Teachers Federation President Clint Johnston says in all cases where students are a flight risk, a safety plan is always put in place.

“Student safety is the highest priority for all of us who work in public education, and teachers, support staff and admin all do their very best to ensure students are safe in schools and on playgrounds every day,” said Johnston.

“This problem reflects [the] fact that education has been underfunded and understaffed for a very long time in B.C. We urgently need more teachers, school counsellors, education assistants, Indigenous support workers and resource teachers to meet the diverse needs of our learners.”