too close to home

KSTP.com - Police search for missing boy:

"'Would he normally be able to watch out for himself? Perhaps. But he's in a neighborhood he does not know,' said St. Paul Police spokesman Tom Walsh.
He was walking away from the Maxfield Magnet Elementary School and officials said he did not get on the bus after school."

I know this neighborhood and the kids used to go to this school! It is not the safest place at all. Although a recent check of google maps shows that many of the houses have been cleaned up quite a bit--it was really bad when my kids were there.

So the question I would be screaming as a teachers/principal is why the hell was this kid allowed to walk away from the school instead of getting on the bus!!!!

Central is the side street to the school where the buses line up to pick up kids, there is the playground behind the school which runs the length of that side of the street so the school takes up the entire block. The freeway is just on the one side of the school, with just a single lane service road between them!

The year before we moved they (the school district) had changed their bussing policy and kids were going to have to walk along the very very very busy (main artery) street over the freeway in order to get to school and there was a HORRIBLE stink over it---we were lucky, we lived far enough from the school where it didn't effect us, but YES I was one of the parents who said it was a really stupid idea!

This school really started to go down hill when they re-visioned their emphasis for the kids....when they went Magnet. When my kids first started there it was a Math-Science-Tech school....that's where the emphasis was...so the kids were actually taught beginning in kindergarten. They actually were expected to read & write and spell correctly in kindergarten. I know to a lot of people this might seem early, but the US is consistantly falling behind other nations so we should start expecting the kids to learn earlier.

When our daughter started kindergarten the whole atmosphere of the school seemed to have changed for the worse. Kindergarten became a place to 'socialize'...by first grade spelling correctly became 'optional' (they call it intuitive spelling, I call it wrong)....by second grade they let the kids read kindergarten books and then couldn't understand why they weren't scoring well on tests....by third grade they decided that the majority of the third grade class wasn't ready to take the tests so they put them in 3.5 grade.....
We pulled out--we had enough....and we've had problems with her ever since (her first year in the new district she went from reading at a 1st grade level to a 4.2 grade level--sweet!)

Now the new district is looking at the old district as a 'role model'....WHAT?????? I've spoke my peice....I may end up home-schooling yet.

Anyhow I digress....this kid...these poor parents....you can bet that there will be severe consequences!!! I hope he is okay.

The neighborhood was delapitated 7 yrs ago--I'd hate to think what it would be like now! I'm hoping he was able to stay warm during the night....it got down to 15F last night in the area....if he was like my kid chances are he was dressed for the warmer weather during the day...this poor family.
I can remember the panic I went thru when my daughter just walked to a different bus stop here at the new place and we couldn't find her (called 911 and everything)....I really feel for these parents.

This district had better hope this kid is in perfect health and nothing happened to him.

It is their job to be sure that these kids get on the bus, it is the drivers job to be sure they stay there and get off at the proper stop (got a story for this too)....there is no reason that this kid should have been able to get lost like this!!

Gargoyles protect this boy!