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School District 51 Officials Speak Out on Missing Student Policies

by KREX News Room
by John Dias

Story Created: Oct 11, 2012 at 7:27 AM MDT

Story Updated: Oct 11, 2012 at 8:35 AM MDT

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.- Could you imagine waking up to a phone message saying your child didn’t make it to school that day? That was the case for 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway’s mother after the girl went missing last week on the Front Range.

It's estimated nearly 1,600 students within School District 51 walk to school.

With a large number like that it comes as no surprise that School District 51 officials say they’re always prepared to handled a crisis.

“Whatever number is on the emergency contact list we will go through systematically and contact those,” said Tim Leon of School District 51 security. “The school is really good about knowing, even if names aren't on those lists they know their parents pretty well.”

The drop-off lines at schools across the Grand Valley pile up every school day. Even though many parents say goodbye to their children in front of the school, some students make the journey to the building by themselves.

However, if a school bells rings and a child fails to arrive to school, district officials say that's when things get really serious. "That’s the big thing,” said Leon, “making sure kids are there and accounted for.”

Leon says a parent typically calls the school to let them know the student will be missing from class that day, but if a parent forgets, officials say school officials will try their hardest to get to the bottom of it.

“Our staff is very concerned about all students, and if a student isn’t accounted for then there are concerns that any number of things could happen to that student,” said Leon.

Local parents agree, saying the safety of their children should always be at the top of the district's list.

“I would hope they would call any numbers they had for me, my husband, my parents, her grandparents, until they figured out why she wasn't at school,” said Ashlee Meindersee, a parent.

“I hope they would have a list of my home numbers, cellphone numbers, any number until they got a hold of somebody related to my daughter, until we knew, somebody knew that she wasn't where she was supposed to be,” said Sarah Queen, another parent.

District officials say a school typically calls a parent within the first 30 minutes of school starting.

With a lot of recent changes to bus routes, schools are focusing on teaching kids safety tips.

Parents are also encouraged to teach safety tips to their children while at home.

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Becky said on Thursday, Oct 11 at 6:30 PM

Look at the sex offenders around the area, they seem to be pretty thick around where the schools are-why are they allowed to live that close? The sex-offenders would be the first to look at on a list, yet they are concentrated by the school area-I am worried.

Ladybug said on Thursday, Oct 11 at 4:26 PM

District 51 does NOT care...for 2 years my child has attended every day, every minute of school, but not one congratulations- even going so far as to mark my child absent from a period in the middle of the day when there was a substitue---do I get a phone call..nooo, did they check to see ifin my child cut classe(didn't cut) nooo....they don't care because ifin they did then he would not be marked absent in the middle of the day.

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