JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Children and Families has launched an investigation into the Head Start program at Rufus Payne Elementary School after they say a 3-year-old wandered away from the facility Monday.
This wandering child marks the second time in a week that a child has wandered off from a child care facility.
According to Antonio Pennamon, the father of 3-year-old Jaden Pennamon, the boys mother dropped him off at school at 8:30 a.m. and when she went back to pick Jaden Pennamon up, the school failed to tell her that the toddler had managed to leave the school.
"We were told about his behavior for the day, but they didn't tell us our son left the school," Antonio Pennamon said.
It took another parent telling the boy's mother that he had managed to walk out of day care and into the street shortly after breakfast.
"A stranger found him at the stop sign and he was in a car with her. And the stranger brought him back to school with her. She was going door-to-door trying to figure out who this child belongs too," Antonio Pennamon said.
School administrators later told Antonio Pennamon that his child managed to walk out of the school and down to an intersection but he said that the incident was never reported.
"I could've lost a son in this process in a split second. And then by you not telling it, I have a problem with that because if he would have gotten killed or something like that, then what was going to be your excuse for not telling me?" Antonio Pennamon said.
Fortunately his son was unharmed thanks to a good Samaritan who Antonio Pennamon and his family are forever grateful for.
"We know who she is but I would like to tell her, I appreciate her and I think God for her. Because there's not a lot of people out there that's decent enough to return a child. And I thank her from the bottom of my heart. Because it could've been someone else that found him instead of her. And I just want to tell her thank you very much and God bless you," Antonio Pennamon said.
Antonio Pennamon has been in meetings with administration all day. He said that the mother of Jaden Pennamon did receive a voicemail from the teacher apologizing for what happened and the school said that teacher has been placed on administrative leave.
The Pennamon family said they have a meeting with DCF tomorrow to follow up on what happened. DCF said two investigators have been placed on this incident.
DCF said the day care could be fined as much as $500 for this type of violation.
John Harrell, a spokesman for DCF said that for 3-year-olds, the state law is that there must be at least one employee for every 15 children. DCF said that this should be a wake-up call for not only this facility, but for all child care facilities, as this is the second time in a week that something like this has happened.
Thankfully in both cases, the child was found and returned safely. Once the investigation is done, the program could be fined between $100 and $500 for the violation.
"Let's make sure that those doors are locked, let's make sure that those children are properly supervised at all times to prevent this from happening. You could have had a couple of tragedies here in one week. Thankfully we had heroic people to come to the rescue of these children, but it shouldn't happen to begin with," Harrell said.
DCF said the program at Rufus Payne Elementary School had another supervision violation last year, when a 4-year-old was put on the wrong bus.
They will put together a corrective action plan once the investigation is complete which they are hopeful will be in about a month or so.