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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Can a child escape from your school?

103 replies

manicinsomniac · 16/03/2015 18:51

If you work at and/or have a child at a school - is it possible for a child to get out?

Deliberately being hugely vague on details here but recently a child of 11 ran away from our school and was returned by a member of the public. I thought the school would be in loads of trouble but that doesn't seem to be the case.

AIBU to think it ought to be impossible (or at least very difficult) - or would that mean restricting children's freedom too much?

I'm just scared to think of what could have happened.

OP posts:
justforonceanonymous · 16/03/2015 22:37

Yes easily. Doors are left open all the time including the main reception doors.

Bunnyjo · 16/03/2015 22:39

I doubt it could happen at DC's school. It's a tiny school with 3 classes. Class 1 and 2 are behind a huge locked gate that is padlocked on the outside and bolted on the inside. Class 3 has a fire door that opens onto the front play area (near the school gates) but the fire door is alarmed. The other exits are through the kitchen and reception area which are always manned or locked.

ShellyF · 16/03/2015 22:39

No,we are like Fort Knox.

RedSoloCup · 16/03/2015 23:16

Our school is harder to get in than out, I have left un-noticed by pressing the switch by the door and there being no-one in reception so I think a child could slip out if they really wanted to and timed it right.

ouryve · 16/03/2015 23:23

Local primary has become more secure since my two have been there. Window locks fixed when DS1 took to climbing out of windows in reception. Button lock to keep strangers out of office area replaced with a pass lock - though that's only as good as the people who bother to shut it properly behind them. Yard has always been totally locked off between 9:15 and 3. Field is slightly less secure, with only a hedge down one side (tall spiked railings on all others), but is locked off from the yard when not in use.

trashcanjunkie · 16/03/2015 23:23

The security is to keep people out, not lock the kids in. It's school not prison ffs!

Our primary has ten foot fences and locked down reception, but we hear now and again that so and so escaped and went home. They can easily climb the fences if they choose to, and staff cannot drag them back, they would probably be fired! The dcs have to want to stay there themselves....

CunningCat · 16/03/2015 23:31

When Ds was in year 6 a boy in his class regularly absconded and mounted the occasional roof top protest!

ouryve · 16/03/2015 23:31

And to all who say that schools are not prisons, apart from the fact that it's sometimes necessary to keep someone out (eg an abusive estranged family member) all schools are expected to accept kids with SN on roll. One reason we will me moving DS2 out of mainstream in secondary is site security.

DS1 has got better from his escape attempts through a window, in reception, but he's not in a specialist school.It's a 9-19 school on a rambling country estate, so doesn't have securely fenced perimeters. He kept going out of bounds, early in the autumn. Turned out that he didn't understand the permitted boundary maps.

ouryve · 16/03/2015 23:32

He's now in a specialist school...

ouryve · 16/03/2015 23:33

9-19

Give up Blush

PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange · 16/03/2015 23:37

Ds could easily. He is a good climber. However he hasn't thought to go over the fence. He is 8.

Dd aged 5 wouldn't dare break any rules.

trashcanjunkie · 16/03/2015 23:39

ouryve what's your point? About schools not being prisons and SEN? Are you implying the SEN children need locking in? I don't get it.... The school is secure from the threat of intruders, and this, as app has said came about after Dunblane. Surely SEN aren't being kept at school by locked gates, rather the staff employed to care for them according to their particular needs....

trashcanjunkie · 16/03/2015 23:40

A pp not app.

Bilberry · 16/03/2015 23:46

One of my dc school has no perimeter fence but does have a footpath across the playground from houses to the supermarket. My other dc would have to walk to a gap in their fence - unless they want to climb the 3 foot fence (they often do). This school has the added advantage of being able to disappear into the attached forest. (The TAs are kept busy at play times shadowing various SEN kids from 6 foot away in case the decide to run).

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 16/03/2015 23:48

Yes, primary, not too easily from the building as the front door has a receptionist/admin sat next to it, and all the classrooms are on the outside of the building, someone would be likely to see a child on the path round to the gates. However if they made it out of the building or were outside playing it would be quite easy, the gates are just on latches. Staff keep the children well away from the areas leafing to the gates, but it would be doable. I've only heard of it happening once in the 7 years we've been there.

MrsMook · 16/03/2015 23:54

[http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-28192659]

Although had I have done more than 4 days work there, I think I'd have been joining in!

Secondaries are quite variable, depending on their site, and surroundings. Most are quite secure, but some can be surprisingly open.

SteppeAwayFromTheKeyboard · 16/03/2015 23:55

Ours is hard to get into - the doors are locked, so you need a swipe pass to get in. Visitors need to be accompanied to where they are going.

The playground is safe so little ones can't run out, the gate has a high bolt.

But any older child can walk out through the door, and then open the high bolt.

But also, I know my ds in year 6 could have climbed the fence if he wanted to get out.

TrixieB123 · 17/03/2015 00:07

At DDs school, not a chance, 10 foot fences and locked gates, only other way in or out is via reception.

My old secondary school erected a 10 foot fence and had a guard monitoring passes (sixth formers were the only ones allowed to leave the premises) but obviously forgot about the alleyway behind the tennis courts. We all used to start our lunchbreaks by heading that way and then stashing our racquets in the bushes. Lord knows how no staff got suspicious by the droves of kids heading out to play tennis at lunch, while the courts remained mysteriously empty.

IneedAdinosaurNickname · 17/03/2015 00:51

Our primary school? Nope. No way. well unless a gate is left unlocked that is. Getting in is just as difficult. As it should be.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 17/03/2015 01:03

DS1 - 17 at college, they are free to come & go as they choose (obviously).

DS2 - 14, secondary school. He could walk out, yes. But the HT's office is conveniently placed to overlook the driveway and the hole in the fence around the sports field that I used to use 25 years ago is no longer there.

DD - 3, pre-school. No, doors are locked & the locks are too high for even the tallest of 3 year olds Grin.

So all pretty age appropriate really.

FanFuckingTastic · 17/03/2015 01:31

Yes, DD aged four managed to evade notice twice. First time she hid in bushes until everyone went in. Second she ran and I couldn't chase her on my mobility scooter. Both times she could have left the school, so there was a very large search for her. Luckily both times she was hiding on school property.

Florrieboo · 17/03/2015 01:50

Yes easily, both of my sons have classrooms that open out onto the yard (no corridors etc) and there are about 4 or 5 exits out to the street, none of which have closed gates. It's part of being ready for school that they will not leave the grounds during school hours.

however · 17/03/2015 03:54

Escape? Well, they could leave if they wanted to. I can't imagine they would.

FanFuckingTastic · 17/03/2015 05:02

This being the same four year old who managed to escape the house in the middle of the night, through two locked doors, one of which had a lock out of reach at the top of the door, and the other which had a key lock. Being woken by the police has to be the worst experience of my life. Alarms were of course the next thing purchased, so that she couldn't open a door without a loud screeching. I still can't believe she managed all of that silently enough that my open bedroom door didn't allow me to hear her and waken. She has been a lesson in what to expect from a child. From very early on she had me on my toes and still managed to get herself into difficult situations.

She's nearly seven now, and her danger awareness has improved a bit, but I still have to take an abnormal amount of care to keep her safe, it took those two episodes at school before they believed how difficult she could be, and took measures beyond the norm to ensure she was safe. No one listened to me before that, I could tell them about her waking at 1am and playing all night before school, and they'd think I was just not parenting well. I was certainly at my wits end with her, as she was a runaway and I'm disabled and have mobility problems. She was put back into the pram until she was five almost, simply so I could ensure her safety, we also still use a wrist strap, especially if I am in the scooter, so I can hold onto her.

I have a lot more grey in my hair since having her.

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