Special Needs 4-Year-Old Leaves School

DALLAS - Kimberly Dukes’ 4-year-old son Cain has autism and mental retardation. He doesn’t speak and is in a special needs class.

But he was home from school on Thursday because two days earlier Dukes said Pease Elementary School in Dallas lost track of him. And she won’t take him back there.

’All I’ve been doing is crying and trying to figure out what happened,’ she said.

On Tuesday, Dukes said a teacher told her Cain somehow slipped out and was found by a neighbor who called 911.

’When she told me I was in shock. I just started crying because of the things that could’ve happened to him,’ she said.

She said she tried to get details from the school, but only got the run-around.

The district told FOX 4 two groups of students were passing each other at the cafeteria. Cain was in line with his class when he got lost in the shuffle.

’Apparently he became confused when he stepped outside the cafeteria door that leads to the outside. Because that door locks, it’s inaccessible from the outside. He wasn’t able to get back in,’ said Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander.

DISD said his teacher realized he was missing. She started searching and alerted the principal. At the same time the neighbor saw him outside and called 911.

The district said the boy was gone a total of 14 minutes.

’We’re sorry that this happened. But we also understand how it happened. Sometimes things happen during the course of the school day,’ Dahlander said.

That’s not enough for Dukes. She’s planning to move Cain out of DISD.