Pre-K student walks a mile to school

ALVIN, Texas (KTRK) – A school district south of Houston says it is making changes at an elementary school to keep children safe after a 4-year-old boy was able to walk away on his own and was found nearly a mile away.

The pre-K student was left outside during recess and no adults realized he was alone. It’s a call his mother, Taylor Singleton, says she never expected.

“She said they couldn’t find Carter,” Singleton said.

The call was from her son’s Alvin ISD school, Meridiana Elementary. Her 4-year-old son, a bus rider, was fired from walking the kids home, even though he has a bus rider tag on his backpack.

“How does this happen?” Singleton said. “He is a 4-year-old who walks on his own. Does anyone notice anything unusual?”

It happened on Oct. 27, and the child was able to walk nearly a mile on busy Meridiana Parkway before being found by another mother at a business complex just off the 288 freeway.

“When she said they saw him near 288, I immediately broke down because I’m like my son is going to be taken or he’s going to get hit,” Singleton said.

Little Carter returned to school safe from the police.

His mother says Meridiana Elementary told her that dismissal procedures were understaffed and the bus and walk lines merged.

The school district sent a statement that reads in part, “Following this extremely unfortunate situation, Alvin ISD has conducted a complete review of safety protocols, which led to procedural modifications at Meridiana Elementary.”

The mom says the school and Alvin ISD apologized, but she wants more assurances and concrete plans for safety protocol changes.

“I understand that mistakes happen, but this could have been a mistake that could have cost us our child,” she said. “This should never have happened at all.”

She is also looking for the mother who found her young son and kept him safe while she called the police.

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