N.S. mother calls for more inclusion support after autistic son went missing from school

An Annapolis Valley woman is calling for more inclusion supports in Nova Scotia’s pre-primary program after her five-year-old autistic son ran away from his school last week and was missing for a half-hour as a frantic search took place.

Reagan Antoine says her son Micheal slipped away during outdoor playtime, made his way into a nearby forest and at some point must have waded into the stream that runs behind the school, as his pantlegs were wet to the knees when he was found.

“I was thinking that I lost my son. I thought he was dead,” Antoine said of her thoughts while he was missing. “I instantly was like, this is it. I gave my son his last hug.”

The incident unfolded last Wednesday at Cambridge and District Elementary School in Cambridge, N.S. Micheal was playing in the schoolyard around noon with his peers under the supervision of early childhood educators when he left unnoticed.

As soon as the ECEs discovered he was gone, Antoine said, they quickly searched the immediate area and then called police to help.

Antoine got the call from the school at 12:10 p.m. that Micheal was missing, and her boss drove her to the school to join the search effort that was already underway.

“I straight-lined it through the woods and I started just screaming Micheal’s name,” she said.

The search party included teachers and staff, students from the nearby high school, police officers and a police drone. A police dog was also on its way.

The wooded area includes a steep hill that descends to a stream which, when the CBC visited two days after the incident, appeared to be quite deep in places.

Antoine said a teacher found Micheal sitting on a rock, content and uninjured.

“He doesn’t understand the severity,” Antoine said. “He just left with the teacher, thinking it was lunchtime.”

A police officer drove Antoine and Micheal back to the school, and her son “thought it was so awesome” to ride in the police vehicle, Antoine said. He was “overjoyed” to see his grandparents and uncle, who had also arrived to join the search.

Paramedics examined him and gave him the all-clear.

Antoine said Micheal is a known flight risk, and several safety precautions have been in place for him since the first day of school in September.

The school has an alarm on his classroom door that alerts any staff inside the room that the door has opened, and Micheal wears a bright, reflective vest when outdoors at school to locate him easily.

Partway through the school year, Antoine also got Micheal a tracking bracelet, which he wears on his wrist at all times. If he goes missing, Antoine can provide the tracker number to police so they can alert search and rescue teams. The bracelet emits a frequency that can be used by searchers to help locate him.

Antoine said she didn’t have the tracker number with her that day and when she called the tracker operator to get it, she repeatedly received an automated message and was not able to access the service.

Since the incident, she has kept Micheal home from school. She said she needs to feel more confident he will be safe there before he returns.

“Micheal deserves to go back and to see his friends and be around the teachers that he cares about so much. So at the end of the day, it’s kind of me just waiting to take that leap, but I’m scared to gamble his safety,” she said.

At a meeting with school officials last Thursday, she said she was told there will be a designated early childhood educator to keep an eye specifically on Micheal when he’s outdoors at school.

School staff also said they want to put markers on the trees to alert children that they shouldn’t go past that point, and will offer educational stories about staying with a group and staying put if they become lost.

The school doesn’t have a fence around the area where Micheal’s pre-primary class was playing that day, and Antoine said she believes one should be installed.

Antoine said the extra measures are “very appreciated,” but she would like to see a systemic change that would offer more support for children in pre-primary who need it, including one-on-one support.

Currently, one-on-one support is only offered beginning in Grade Primary.

“I want the Department of Education to realize that disabilities don’t start in Primary,” Antoine said. “These kids are born with them and they need help.”

The Education Department, which oversees the pre-primary program, did not make anyone available for an interview.

The department said extra ECEs or specialized staff can be brought in if a pre-primary class has complex needs, and schools can adjust operations to have enhanced supervision and add physical safety measures.

However, those extra staff are brought in to support the whole class rather than one-on-one support for specific children, the department said.

“Because pre-primary is flexible, play-based learning, there are not the same learning-centred Educational Assistants or Educational Program Assistants as used in the Primary to Grade 12 system,” the department said.

The statement said the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education is “carefully reviewing operations and physical spaces” in the wake of the incident.

No one from the centre was made available for an interview. In a statement, a spokesperson wrote that staffing ratios for the pre-primary program were met on the day in question, and “as soon as the child was unaccounted for, staff took action immediately.”

The statement said ECEs are made aware if a child needs extra support and supervision, and there is regular communication with parents to address concerns.

Antoine said it shouldn’t have taken a near tragedy to get extra support.

“It’s very disheartening that bad things have to happen for changes to be made. Like my son could have left the woods in a body bag.”

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