A local mother is calling on the Algoma District School Board to update its safe arrivals policy after her 8-year-old autistic daughter missed school and was left alone with her deceased father for upwards of 12 hours during a school day last week.
“The school called Jeff twice,” she recalls. “The first one wasn’t until 11:46 a.m., and the second one was at 12:33 p.m. when they left a voicemail. They didn’t talk to anybody. Jeff and I are separated, but we have joint custody with Tillie. They never called me.” “If I hadn’t needed to talk to Jeff, she could have potentially been with him all night and I wouldn’t have known,” she said tearfully. “I had no idea she wasn’t at school or what had happened.”
Moving her daughter to H.M. Robbins for the start of the school year this September, Syrette-Stuckenbrock learned the school believes in a “personal touch” approach where a secretary phones the parents concerning absences instead of an automated message.