FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Melissa Thompson has pulled her two children out of Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary School after her special-needs son, Kalen Noble, 7, left school unnoticed on Thursday and walked home during morning recess.

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School criticized
after boy wanders
home at recess

Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary
says it has added safety measures

A mother has pulled her two children from Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary School after her 7-year-old special-needs son walked home alone and unnoticed Thursday during morning recess.

Melissa Thompson said her son Kalen Noble returned from school, about five blocks away from their home in Halemoku Navy Housing, about 10 a.m. when she was home sick. When she called her son's classroom, she was told the teachers did not know where her son was and were looking for him.

"He could have been hit by a car, somebody could have grabbed him," she said, noting her son had to cross busy Center Drive.

Thompson said there are three teachers and two educational assistants for the 15 special-needs students in her son's class. She is upset none of them called her as soon as they discovered her son missing.

"They didn't even notify the principal, Elynne Chung," she said.

Chung said she was already at the boy's classroom when Thompson called. She said the teachers were following school procedures, checking the restrooms and other classrooms.

"We're going to do those first before we alarm the parent," Chung said. "As much as we don't condone what happened, we are doing everything possible to prevent this from happening again."

After meeting with Thompson and her husband later Thursday, Chung said she made two changes to the school's safety procedures. There are now two adults monitoring the playground when kids in kindergarten through second grade are on recess, instead of one. And the gates to the parking lot and pedestrian walkway at the front of the school will be closed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. They had been kept open during school hours.

Thompson said she would like to see guards at the gates.

She said she will continue to keep her two sons at home until she sees the school's safety procedures in writing.

Thompson said she cannot understand how nobody noticed her son go into his classroom to retrieve his backpack and then walk past the administration office to leave the campus.

Chung said many kids keep snacks in their backpacks for the morning recess, and the path off campus does not pass the front of the office.

There are 610 students in kindergarten through sixth grade enrolled at Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary.

Thompson said her sons started attending Pearl Harbor Kai two years ago. Her 11-year-old son is a fifth-grader. She said she started home-schooling Kalen last October, then sent him back to Pearl Harbor Kai last week. Thursday was his second day back at school.

Chung conducted assemblies for all grades yesterday to remind the students of their responsibility to stay on campus.

Thompson is not sure if her son understood that.

"Now he does," she said.