None of this situation sounds fishy or hard to understand the hows, when why. However I’m also the mother of a child with nonverbal autism. Non verbal means she can’t communicate with words but she certainly communicates. Also Being non verbal doesn’t mean you can’t hear and understand everything being said. My child is no more of a “burden” then my other 3 children have been at different stages of life. With all that being said. I honestly could not catch my daughter if she took off running. I’d never call out to her either that would just thrill her ( when she was tbat age) and she would go faster and farther. I wouldn’t even want her to know I was chasing after her if possible same reasons. I also can not catch my grandson when he takes off either. He’s 3 and nt. Kids run faster then people realize.
My daughter at age 6 was on the school playground with 4 adults and 6 kids. She was swinging. 3 minutes later the adults started walking the kids inside doing the normal head count they realized they only had 5 kids not 6. Mine was gone , the area around the playground is open nothing obstructing view. They knew she was JUST there they saw her swinging and mostly heard her. There’s also fencing around the playground they couldn’t visably see her outside. With so little time passing since they saw her the assumption was she went inside the school when a older group did that had been returning from a walking field trip just a minute prior. So they didn’t panic but notified the teacher who started a search inside the school. They locked the school down and over the intercom they asked all teachers to search their rooms. Nothing she seemed to of vanished. However a older child when hearing this on the intercoms told her teacher that she had saw a little girl about 15 mins prior running by the big ditch and main road that is near the school . It’s however the length of a football field and a gate to get around from where my daughter was last seen. But they reported it and after talking with the child a min my Daughters teacher knew it WAS my kid she had seen. She matched her clothing , size , pig tails etc. So then they panicked and realized she wasn’t safe somewhere in the school but was outside. The teacher just started running towards that area not finding her. So much time had passed. However while running by the busy street she thought she heard my kid being her typically normal loud self. She was running to the little walkway that allows you to get past the big ditch to the busy street as she was doing that she happened to glance down into the ditch which is 8 to 12 feet deep depending on what side your on.
She then saw my daughters pigtails right above the water line of this ditch. It had 4 ft of standing water in it. My kid was almost to her chin in the water which was filled with the unimaginables of slime and yuck. But She was splashing like it was nothing. The teacher had a hard time finding a place to crawl down into it she finally just jumped down reaches her and had help lifting her out . There was so much wrong with the story. I should of been called first. They should of looked outside always look outside and in bodies of water FIRST. Never underestimate how fast they can get away so fast no one out side noticed her. They couldn’t figure out how she got around the fencing until a few days later when they were outside again and watched my daughter she would look to see if they were looking , her eyes would glance at a certain area of the fence and she kept repeating this. She was waiting for the moment no one was paying attention then she already had her plan. That’s how my kid worked , anyone they started looking in the area they saw my daughter looking found there was a small gap in the fencing that they couldn’t see unless right upon it. The district had a brand new fence put around just the playground up closer.
Several new rules some at my insistence were put in place after that day also. My kid knew somehow there was water down there and who knows how long she’d been planning this.
I knew it could happen. It had happened under my watch but not to this extent because I was aware that she can be stubborn and pokey one minute and then run a Marathon in the spur of the moment. But no one really “got it” until well it happened and they did. Maddox could of easily been my kid back when she was 6. I could of or my husband or our entire family could be in the shoes of that dad. I’ve lived the life I’m somewhat of a helicopter parent house is locked like Fort Knox yet my child did escape all my safety guards at home. She got out of the house was gone she out smarted the locks and chains and was gone. If she could get out of the house and get lost at school. You better believe a park or any public place was more subsebtable . She could be gone so quick like lightening that no one would of even noticed her. We didn’t go out often but with 3 other kids we couldn’t all stay locked up in a house either. I thought it could never happen to me. Fact is it DID , it can happen to any of us . You just don’t even realize it until your in the situation.
