Milwaukee school didn't know boy left building, mother says
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee mother said her 6-year-old son, who is on the autism spectrum, walked out of school last month – and nobody knew he was gone.
Precious McIntyre is used to someone she knows dropping off her son, Tyree, at home Imagine her surprise when, on Sept. 20, she looked at her doorbell camera and saw her son with a stranger.
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Three hours after Tyree's dad dropped him off at Metcalfe School near 34th and North, a woman found the 6-year-old outside and brought him home. He lives about a mile from the school.
"He felt like he was being bullied, he didn’t have any friends, so he said he just wanted to go home – and he went home," McIntyre said.
Metcalfe School, Milwaukee
According to the 6-year-old himself, he walked right out of the school's front door.
Tyree has ADHD and recently received an autism diagnosis. Since last year, his 504 plan for behavior and safety precautions listed concerns about him running out of class/building. One accommodation is supposed to ensure the first-grader is accompanied by a staff member at all times when escalated.
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But on the day Tyree left Metcalfe School, his mother said she was told a security guard stopped him after he walked out of class – but never watched him walk back inside class.
"I had a meltdown," she said. "If it wasn’t for the grace of god and this lady bringing my baby home and me teaching him at least the street that he lives on, he could have been in the morgue or dead."
Precious McIntyre
McIntyre said the woman found her son walking near 35th and North and trying to cross the busy street to get home. She has filed multiple complaints with Milwaukee Public Schools and one with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. She said she still hasn't gotten any answers about how her son left, so she pulled him out of school.
"To know that nobody even knew that he was missing, was the worst feeling ever for me," she said.
Autism in the classroom
Earlier this year, FOX6 Investigators reported about a 9-year-old girl on the autism spectrum who walked out of her MPS school twice.
"There’s not a school district around that will say they don’t have that challenge with elopement with individuals on the spectrum," said Rechelle Chaffee, executive director of Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin. "Better strategies need to be put in place to keep all of our kiddos safe."
READ MORE: Autism 'bolting' danger; child flees Milwaukee classroom twice
Chaffee said these strategies could be changing the classroom setting to make it more difficult for students to leave the building, finding out why they're leaving, updating individualized education plans and requesting functional behavior assessments.
The executive director also said there are upcoming plans with MPS instructors for insight on autism. She hopes to have that training day before the 2024-2025 school year is over.
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"Intensive training day of strategies, practical strategies and tips and tools to be utilized in the classroom," Chaffee said.
They are steps that McIntyre would like to see, along with accountability from MPS.
FOX6 reached out to MPS for comment on this story. A spokesperson said, because of district policy and state and federal law, MPS cannot talk about individual students or their families' circumstances.