By JOSEPH KELLARD
The day after Ryan eluded his teacher, her aid and a hall monitor to leave school grounds and reach the corner of Foxhurst and Oceanside roads on Feb. 17, Santamaria wanted the district to send parents a letter informing them of the security breakdown that could possibly have ended in her son's kidnapping, or worse. Santamaria raised the issue, and another, about accountability, to administrators at a school board meeting on March 14. On each occasion, she said, she was essentially told the matter was an issue the school would deal with internally.
"They said it's a 'privacy issue' and would not allow it," Santamaria said about the letter she wanted mailed to parents. "And I tried to explain to them, this does not involve an individual child; this is a school safety issue."
On the morning of the incident, Santamaria recalls dropping Ryan off at the Merle Avenue side of the school at about 9:20 a.m. She believes he followed his normal routine of heading up to his classroom with an aid and fellow students, and that he probably arrived at his cubby about 10 minutes later. Going by what she was told, Santamaria said that Ryan uncharacteristically gave his teacher and her aid a hard time, saying he wanted to see his mother, and sat down in his cubby and refused to enter his classroom.
"Somehow - I couldn't get from the teachers exactly how this occurred - whether they [told Ryan], 'Get yourself together and come in the classroom when you're ready' or what - but the fact of the matter is they went in the classroom to say the Pledge of Allegiance and left him out in the hallway," Santamaria explained.
Ryan went down some stairs and out a door at the front of the school, near the gym, apparently when the hall monitor either was not looking or was down the hallway. Since he lives near the corner of Oceanside and Foxhurst roads, the boy walked to that intersection and stood there, because he was upset that he couldn't get across the busy street, according to his mother. A woman motorist spotted the 5-year-old standing there alone, suspected something was wrong, and took him to Oceanside Tuxedo, at the southeast corner of that intersection. She called his home and left a message at about 10:13 a.m. The woman then took Ryan back to his school.
Gelbwasser was unaware that Ryan was gone until the woman returned him. Whenever a child is missing, school procedure is to notify the principal, who announces it over the PA and calls police, neither of which occurred that day. At about 10:40, Gelbwasser called Santamaria to tell her what had happened.
"Aids can never let a child even walk to their cubby without being with them," Santamaria said. "And my son was left alone in a hallway. Period. Obviously a mistake was made." She thinks it highly unlikely that her 5-year-old outsmarted an already elaborate security system. "This was a very bad judgment call, by both the teacher and the aide," she said.
When asked about the incident, and about what, if any, action was being taken with those responsible for Ryan's disappearance, Gelbwasser declined to comment. But she said, "We've always been diligent that when children go to the bathroom, they go with adult supervision, but now, even when children go outside to put a paper in their cubby, they are not allowed to do that without an adult overseeing that." The principal emphasized that security at the school is nevertheless a model, and pointed to the fact that Santamaria had her child back in school the next day.
"My understanding is that everyone thought everyone else was doing the right job," said school board President Sue Graham. On the letter Santamaria wanted sent out, Graham said, "It was a judgment call where you're damned if you do or damned if you don't."
At a March 11 PTA meeting, Gelbwasser outlined for Santamaria and other parents the increased security measures she and the district are taking in light of the incident. Foremost, the school is looking into putting alarms on six internal doors that will alert staff before anyone who passes through them can get outside.
Gelbwasser also met with each group of staff, from teachers to aides to monitors to an emergency-response team, in part to strengthen procedures when a child is missing, something the school does yearly, she said. Further, the school will strengthen three basic security and safety programs already in place, including having a security provider give talks to all kindergartners on matters of emergency safety and stranger awareness earlier in the year. Another program involves having an advisor talk with parents about such issues with their children.
"We've always had these things, but we're going above and beyond what we normally do," Gelbwasser said, claiming that it has been nine years since an incident like this has happened. Santamaria acknowledged, too, that while her son has been taught these safety measures, when confronted with a certain situation he chose to defy them. Nevertheless, she maintains, the school is responsible to see that no kindergartner leaves school grounds.
"I think it must be said that we have a very secure and nurturing environment here," Gelbwasser said. "But we're going to strengthen it even more so." Stressing an earlier point, she added, "And above and beyond all of these procedures, no longer is a youngster going to be able to go to their cubby without adult supervision."
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