CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG/Gray News) – A father said his 5-year-old daughter wandered away from elementary school and was found by a stranger.

“What happened to my family today is an atrocity that should never happen to anyone in the school district,” John Thompson said during the Cedar Rapids Community School District meeting Monday night.

Thompson said his daughter disappeared from her elementary school around 10:45 a.m. Monday, about an hour before the school dismissed students early because of the extreme heat.

Thompson said his daughter thought a teacher was yelling at her for her bad behavior. He said she went to the 2nd grade area to look for her brother and when she couldn’t find him, she thought he had been picked up without her, so she left school.

Thompson said a woman found his daughter further down the street and brought her home.

He said ten minutes after he dropped his daughter off at home, the school called him and told him she was missing.

“No parent should have to worry about the school not knowing where our child is. That’s their job,” he said.

Thompson said when he asked the principal what could be done to prevent this from happening again, he received only a “partial apology.”

“Children should not be able to leave school unsupervised,” Thompson said.

The school district said that “the safety and well-being” of students was its highest priority and that the school “immediately implemented established safety protocols.”

“We are taking immediate action to review and strengthen our security measures to prevent such incidents in the future,” the school said in a statement to KCRG.

Copyright 2024 KCRG via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.