4 kindergartners found safe a mile from school after walking away during recess

MANCHESTER, NH – On March 28, four kindergarten students at Smyth Road School went missing for 45 minutes but their parents only learned of it after they were found outside an apartment complex about a mile away, according to the mother of one of the children.

“We were kind of shocked because we didn’t find out she was missing until after she was found,” said Russell.  Her daughter is the only child she has enrolled in school.

It was a cloudy and rainy afternoon that day and the four girls, all in the same class, decided they wanted to have a playdate, Russell said.

So, during recess at Smyth Road School, the four children began their adventure heading off to one of their homes located at an apartment complex on Mammoth Road.  The playground is not enclosed with a fence.

The children were missing for 45 minutes before a teacher located them at the apartment complex.  Police were notified and arrived at the site after the children were found safe.

About 2 p.m. that day, Russell received a call from a school official informing her that her daughter had gone missing from the school, was found and was safe.

She said she stressed at the thought of what might have happened to her daughter and the others if they encountered someone along their way, or as they walked along the side of Smyth Road – which has no sidewalks —  before crossing the heavily trafficked Mammoth Road.

“They made it pretty far from the school,” she said.  “They were gone for 45 minutes.”

Russell said the incident is still under investigation even though school officials and police know what occurred.

Andrew Toland, chief of staff for administration of the Manchester School District, confirmed that children did go missing that day.  However, he said he is limited in what he can say because of an ongoing school investigation involving personnel.

“Student safety and well-being is our top priority, and in this case the immediate focus was on locating and ensuring the students were safe. Since shortly after the incident, the school administration has had ongoing communication with the families of the involved students. Given that this involved an active personnel matter, we cannot comment further at this time,” he said in an email.

Russell said most of the information she has about the incident she obtained from other parents although she now is in contact with the school superintendent.

Russell said her understanding is about 60 children were on the playground that afternoon.  When recess was over, the children lined up to go back inside their classrooms where teachers take a count to ensure everyone is present.

The four children were all in the same kindergarten class, Russell said.  When the count came up four short, the teacher knew the children were missing.

Russell said the girls walked from Smyth Road School to an apartment complex on Mammoth Road where one of them lived.

“They wanted to have a playdate so they took it on themselves to go to her house,” Russell said.

They reached the apartment complex which has a playground, but Russell said it was raining and they tried to go inside the apartment building.  They weren’t able to get inside, she said, because it was a secured building.  Then they panicked, she said, because they didn’t know how to get back to the school.

“The girls were very well prepared until they weren’t,” she said.

Her daughter was appropriately dressed for the weather, wearing pink rain boots and carrying a bright yellow umbrella.  Russell said it would be hard not to notice her that day.

Not long after they reached the apartment complex, police went out to look for them but a teacher had already found them there and called back to the school to report they were safe.

The arrival of police cruisers frightened the children and an officer had a teacher take them back to the school.

Russell said the parents of the child who lived there were home but were unaware the children were outside.

Russell said her daughter “should never have had the opportunity to be by herself like that.”

She said Manchester School District Superintendent Jennifer Chmiel Gillis is very much involved in investigating the incident and assured Russell she would be provided with any new information.

Russell said it is odd that the school didn’t send a notice home with all students apprising them of what happened.

The next day, a notice was sent home about an incident in which a student knocked over a fire extinguisher inside the school.  The school was evacuated and the fire department called in.

Yet, she said, four children go missing for 45 minutes and “it’s a secret.”

“I get they’re still investigating but if this happened to someone else’s kid I would want to know what happened,” Russell  said.

Toland said it is not the district’s practice to communicate “with the entire school when it is something that involves one, two or four children.”

He said another distinction between the two incidents is the fire extinguisher incident is not a personnel matter.

“No notice is sent out if an incident does not affect the entire school or if it is a personnel issue,” Toland said.

At-Large Board of School committee member Jim O’Connell said he was unaware of the incident but said he has been out of the country and only returned this past Sunday.  And, he said, there hasn’t been a school board meeting since the incident.

“I’m surprised and disappointed to hear this,” O’Connell said. “If what is claimed is true, then I don’t know how something like that happened.  I will be questioning the administration first thing tomorrow (Friday) morning to get satisfactory information about what happened and how it happened and to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

He said, however, when something like this happens board members usually are given a preliminary report and then a follow-up report.

Sean Parr, Ward 2 school board member, said he had not heard of the incident either and his daughter attends Smyth Road School.

He said an incident like that would be reported to the school district. “With things having to do with school discipline and student conduct, I would like to check with administration first,” he said.

As a parent, however, he said he would like to have known about the incident.

As for Russell, she said when it comes to her 5-year-old, “I’m keeping track of her everywhere she goes now.”