The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

A MOTHER was yesterday brought to tears as she recalled the horrifying moment that she saw a man attempt to steal her seven-year-old daughter from school.

ShawnaKaye Barnett yesterday accused the private school of having poor security after she says a man entered the school’s yard and told the child, “Sweetie, your mom said to come go with me” and reached for her arm.

An emotional Ms Barnett said she was in her vehicle behind two other cars on Tuesday, a few feet away from where the man stood attempting to coerce the young girl to leave.

Ms Barnett said on that day she arrived a few minutes later than normal to pick up her daughter.

“I am normally there from about 2.50pm waiting, but yesterday (Tuesday) I had something to do so I ended up pulling up there at 3.02pm,” the mother of one said. “When I pulled up I saw this gentleman and about one or two cars were in front of me and I saw him. To me he looked like when someone doesn’t belong. His clothes weren’t clean, his shirt was dirty and his hair was rough.”

What happened next has left Ms Barnett rattled and her daughter terrified.

“I saw when he said, ‘Sweetie your mom said to come go with me.’ I heard him with my own two ears. A teacher heard him as well and I took her to the police station with me as a witness.

“He then started to reach out for my daughter so I started blowing and screaming and calling her name and then she saw me and she ran to the car.”

Ms Barnett said she does not know the man and is appalled that he slipped past the school’s security.

“I was trying to take his picture but he ran out of the eastern gate, which is where the lunch vendors are and then he turned around and walked back on the sidewalk and went west so by the time I got a person’s attention he was already gone,” she said.

“Now here is my issue, the security was sitting right there, head down in her phone. She didn’t even see me coming in the gate and when I spoke to the principal, the procedures are when parents are coming through the gate you are supposed to stop whomever is coming through the gate. She didn’t even see me come through the gate.

“I am paying fees for my child to have a good education and to be secured. How would they have explained that to me if I pulled up one minute after my child was missing? How?”

The child now needs counselling, Ms Barnett said.

“My daughter is traumatised. Last night her dad, a police officer, he had to come there and check the yard with the flashing lights on just to give her some sense of security that it’s going to be okay.

“She has it in her head that the guy followed us home because he ran. She is saying what if he is looking out and what if he is home. I had to close all the windows. She didn’t want to go bathe by herself. She didn’t even go to school today because she is scared.”

The mother added: “They have two female securities. I think that’s ridiculous with the amount of children that goes there. I am paying for security.

“They need to implement another system whereas only a certain amount of persons with name and identification could pick up a student. Every car that comes in should be checked,” she also said.

The mother said the incident was reported to the East Street South Police Station. However a police spokesperson told this newspaper they had no reports of any incident at a school.

The officer-in-charge of the station declined comment. 

Officials at the school in question could not be reached for comment yesterday. 

This comes about a week after a man who allegedly exposed himself to a young girl on her way to school was chased away by passing motorists.