School 'lost' autistic girl for entire day before she was found in toilet

A school in Perth has admitted failings after staff “lost” a pupil with autism for more than six hours before she was found in a toilet.

The girl, who attends Oakbank Primary School in Perth, was mistakenly marked absent and left unsupervised for an entire school day.

After she was absent on Thursday, June 19, the school’s principal misinterpreted an email on Friday morning from the child’s parent about her absence as confirmation she would also be absent that day.

But the pupil was chaperoned to school and arrived after 9.15am via the main entrance, where a “handover” process regularly takes place.

She attends the specialist intensive support provision within the school full-time, but was not escorted to class by a member of staff as per the procedure.

The girl, who also has anxiety, made her way into a toilet without being detected by staff and spent six hours in a cubicle on the hottest day of the year so far in Scotland.

In a report following an investigation by the school, the head teacher admitted the child was “mistakenly marked absent”, was not registered, and the parents did not receive notification of the absence.

Despite multiple staff members accessing the toilet area, no one noticed her presence.

She was only found when the taxi chaperone arrived again at 3pm to collect her, with the driver told by staff they thought she was absent.

The girl was located “calm and safe, playing on her iPad”, according to the report. Her parents say they were contacted by the school at around 4pm.

They raised a formal complaint with the school, which has been upheld, and have contacted the head of education at Perth and Kinross Council.

The school admitted failings in dealing with late arrivals, mistakenly marking pupils absent, a lack of communication between staff and to parents and failures in the handover process.

The report also found there was an over-reliance on informal communication, whereby verbal confirmations were accepted.

The school conducted an investigation and has implemented new procedures, including all pupils being required to come through the main entrance.

The parents say this is unacceptable as their child has special sensory needs, and children with ASD often struggle in loud, busy, crowded places.

A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: “We cannot comment on the individual circumstances of our pupils, however any situation which adversely impacts on the safety and wellbeing of children and young people in our schools is of significant concern to us.

“In such circumstances, we will investigate in line with our policies and work with parents and carers to understand why any incident occurred and to take meaningful steps towards resolution to prevent any recurrence.”