5-year-old found wandering from North Carolina school, brought home by good Samaritan

MONROE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A Union County mother is holding her son close after the 5-year-old boy walked out of school without anyone noticing.

Earlier this week, a good Samaritan picked him up off the side of a busy road and took him home.

When Julia Blackman drops her kids off at Prospect Elementary School south of Monroe, she expects someone to watch over them and keep them safe. But this week, she got a knock on her door less than half an hour after she took her youngest son to school which changed everything.

“This is something that very well could have cost us our son, and I can’t accept that,” said Blackman. “I can’t take the chance for that mistake to happen again.”

Hugs between Blackman and her son Tabias are extra special these days.

“I still have, you know, moments this week where I just cry because I think about what could have happened to him and then there’s other moments where I’m just really mad,” she said.

The mom dropped Tabias off at Prospect Elementary Monday morning a little later than usual.

“I signed him into the office,” Blackman recalls. “They buzzed him behind the locked doors and everything. Maybe about 25 minutes later a stranger was knocking on my door, telling me he had my son.”

It was a reunion she’ll never forget.

“My first instinct was to run outside and, you know, get to my son. Then, it was immediate tears when I realized that he had picked him up off the side of the road.”

A man spotted Tabias wandering down Rocky River Road alone and scared in a 55 mph zone trying to find his way home.

“That very well could have been the last time we seen him alive,” said Blackman.

Luckily, the man brought Tabias home, and this worried mom went straight to the school to figure out how this happened.

“When I got there, they had no idea that he was even missing,” said Blackman.

Blackman told Queen City News that Tabias’ teacher and classmates weren’t in the room when he got there, so he went looking for them and ended up getting locked out of the building.

Union County Public Schools released the following statement about the incident:

“The incident involving the student at Prospect Elementary is unacceptable and staff recognizes that this is a serious matter. We are thankful that the student was found safe. UCPS staff and the school’s administrative team are responding to this incident by taking immediate action. As of today, safety protocols have been updated to strengthen gaps related to this situation.”

Looking at Tabias now, you wouldn’t know he’d been through something so scary only a few days ago. For his mom, it’s not something she’ll soon forget.

“God forbid, the wrong person does pick that kid up, that would be it,” she said. “There’s no excusing that. There’s no, ‘I’m sorry.’ There’s no policy that could ever fix that. It’s just inexcusable.”

The mom pulled both of her kids out of the district and is beginning to home-school them. She hopes district leaders will do what they can to make sure this doesn’t happen to another family.

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