PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – A Port St. Lucie family is concerned for their son’s safety after they went to pick up Jackson Critelli, a kindergarten student at Oak Hammock K-8 School, only to find him missing at the end of his first day of school.

WPTV followed up on a tip from the Critelli family and led reporter Joel Lopez to St. Lucie County to get answers to the question of how the mix-up had occurred, 5-year-old Jackson Critelli has been missing for nearly 25 minutes. could have happened.

WPTV

“I was horrified because I didn’t know where my child was,” said Joseph Critelli, Jackson’s father. “At the same time, I was angry because in a place where he was supposed to be safe and monitored, no one knew where he was and couldn’t give us a clear answer.”

Critelli and his wife waited at the parents’ pickup point for nearly half an hour with no sign of Jackson. Their son was eventually found in the family’s neighborhood, nearly a mile away.

“He walked through our neighborhood for 40 minutes, we don’t know everyone who lives in our neighborhood,” Critelli said: “He even said that someone in the neighborhood approached him, but thank God they only offered him water because they saw him stop in the shade to take a break.”

REGARD: WPTV speaks with Joseph Critelli, Father of a 5-year-old who disappeared after being allowed to leave school alone

A family in Port St. Lucie is concerned about their son’s safety after trying to pick up Jackson Critelli

WPTV is now waiting for answers from the school board as to who will be held responsible for this incident and how to ensure that something like this does not happen again.

We reached out to St. Lucie Public Schools and they sent us the following statement:

“During the open day there was a communication problem between the teacher and the parents. This has now been resolved.”

Our questions about how Oak Hammock students are determined to get home or whether kindergarten students are allowed to leave the house alone remained unanswered.

School Board Superintendent Dr. Jon R. Prince was unavailable for our interview request, but School Board member Jack Kelly agreed to meet with WPTV.

“I don’t want to say it’s inevitable, but we will do our best to make it avoidable and not allow it to happen again,” said Kelly.

Lopez asked Kelly what was being done to prevent this problem from happening again.

“I don’t know what exactly. I don’t think the existing procedures were followed,” Kelly said.

WPTV examined the pickup guidelines in the Oak Hammock manual –

“A rider is a student who is picked up by a vehicle through our ride-sharing loop. Students are only allowed to leave this area with their vehicle.

If a parent wishes their child to walk, they should wait for their child with the school crossing guards. Parents are not permitted to enter the campus during school closing times. Parents who walk their child must wait with the school crossing guards.”

Critelli was informed by school administrators that they would be changing their student dismissal process, including separating kindergarten students from older students at different times. Critelli told WPTV he noticed administrators overseeing dismissals more frequently on the second day of school.

“They have already tightened their procedures, but I want to know what they will do in the future to prevent this from happening to anyone else,” said Critelli. “He was already taken to where he was supposed to be, and instead of asking why he was there, he was immediately sent as a walker, and we still don’t know if he was escorted to the sidewalk.”

WPTV

Jackson’s parents said their son was overwhelmed by the situation and gave Jackson the day off school on Wednesday.