Grandfather takes wrong child out of school after mix-up

[Inge]

bbc news

 

I find the last comment hard to agree with...

 

He said: "This incident could happen at any school around the country."

 

I really hope this is not true.. could have been much more serious consequences from this... shows that collection policies are important and need to be strictly followed..

 

 

 

[Panders]

This is quite staggering. Grandfather must need an eye test if nothing else! The lack of attention by so many people in this incident is amazing - as you say Inge, let us hope that this couldn't easily happen anywhere else in the country.

[Upsy Daisy]

I find it hard to understand an awful lot of this event.

Why did the school not check who the guy was before sending any child with him?

Why didn't the child question being sent with a stranger? Did she not feel able to challenge the adults?

Obviously how did the grandfather not realise it wasn't his grandchild?

Why did the child, who presumably wasn't ill come back with medication?

The whole thing is quite bizarre.

[Inge]

I found it very disturbing.. that this could happen when so much is in question..

 

if I had a child at this school I would be asking a lot of questions

[Rea]

My nan took hold of a little lad about 40 years ago in C&A, walked a few paces then glanced down and said 'oh, you're not ours' dropped his hand, saw my brother and grabbed him. I have no idea what happened to the lad!

[finleysmaid]

cor blimey are the people in Gillingham a little lacking in brain cells .......? (exceptions are of course those on this forum)

[Cait]

This is just worryingly, totally bizarre? How on earth..........?

[Guest]

This is awful!!!!!!!

 

Just yesterday I had an incident in afterschool club where 4 children from 2 families had to attend club as the Mums were out on a trip together and got lost! Hence didnt make it to school until almost 4 pm.

No problem but one of the families with 2 little boys there are two different Dads. . . . . . . .

Also fine except we weren't advised that one of the Dads would come and pick up one of these children. No one in the club had EVER seen the Dad before and I could not find a member of staff in the school who had ever seen the Dad!!!!!!!

I apologised to this man and said as we didn't know him and as the message had not been that one of the children would be picked up I couldn't let the child go with him until I had verified who he was and then verified with Mum.

It was a right mess and I did feel awful for the guy stood at our door, but better safe than sorry!!

In the end after being unable to get hold of either missing Mum by phone they (the mums) turned up.

Whilst the man was ok with us he might not have been (and in fact called Mum a dozy tw*t when she arrived) and one of the Mums couldn't understand why we wouldn't let her child go with the man at the door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Many years ago I also had a complaint made against me in nursery when I refused to let one family's grandad pick up 2 children when only one I had had a message about and the other was not a relative either!!!!!

That mum told me that I knew she was friends with the other Mum and that sometimes they shared care..............

I can't quite believe some folks when you are just trying to keep their child safe!!!!!

[Beau]

Lots of questions to be asked here and not only about the school. The whole thing is quite bizarre!

[hali]

I quite agree - just don't know how it could of happened!!!!!!!!

[zigzag]

Oh my goodness...How on earth did this happen??

[Guest]

Oh dear...

[Susan]

I think Im most worried that the child actually went with someone she didnt know?

[finleysmaid]

lets hope that the child with the medical condition wasn't very unwell !!!

[HappyMaz]

Those of you who are facebook friends with me will know I shared this yesterday, and after a little digging I found an article in the Telegraph which gave a bit more background information.

Apparently the grandfather has sight issues, and the two girls look very similar as well as having the same first name. What struck me was that the father intimated in an interview that the little girl was put under pressure to go with the man, which suggests to me that she did try to tell the staff that he wasn't her grandpa.

Years ago on my college day a lady came to collect her granddaughter from nursery, but on seeing this lady at the door she said she had never seen her before and she definitely wasn't her grandma! No-one at work that day had seen this lady before, and it has to be said they were in a panic for a bit as the lady kept insisting that she was grandma, and the child kept insisting she wasn't. Fortunately my deputy followed procedure, looked in the children's details folder to see who was authorised to collect the child and was able to ascertain that she was indeed grandma. As soon as she was faced with the information, the little girl smiled and said she was only joking, and went off happily with Grandma :huh: who by this time was not best pleased!

I think this is one of those stories that pulls us up short - firstly that systems aren't in place to stop children leaving with people they shouldn't leave with, but also how some children are compliant and won't shout out good and loud in a situation like this.

Like everyone else, I can't really see how this could happen.

[Guest SamG]

I'm sure most of you, like me, have passwords in place for nursery and preschool children. I think this should be implemented in primary schools to make sure nothing like this happens again. I would like to think that my son would have shouted out that the man wasn't his granddad, but not all children would.

This needs looking into to ensure it never happens again.

[lynned55]

I can understand how the child went- children trust adults- we tell them all the time to do what their teachers tell them- dont we?

I can sort of understand how the school made the mistake- cant excuse it and think it is a dreadful mistake to make However what I cannot understand is: Why would anyone in their right mind think that someone whose sight is failing them so badly that they fail to recognise their own grandchild is capable of collecting a child that young from school and taking her for a Dr's appointment!! The mind boggles, did he not speak to her- I can only imagine as the poor man was totaly unaware of what had happened it isn't only his sight that was failing him.

 

As for the comment made by the MP- well no wonder this country is in such a mess when we have twits like that running it!!