Trish Shrum is mad at Indianapolis Public School No. 82 officials for lettting her 5-year-old daughter, Trish, "escape" from them in an incident that could be in a silent Keystone Cops movie:
When Mercedes Shrum, 5, found out she had a substitute teacher, she told school officials that she wanted to go home.
The school took her temperature, and because she wasn't ill, administrators got her settled back into the classroom, but not for long.
Shrum, a kindergartner, took off out of the classroom and out a nearby door. She walked at least six blocks, crossing busy streets several times as she tried to remember where she lived, said her mother, Trish Shrum.
[. . .]
IPS spokeswoman Mary Louise Bewley said Mercedes was immediately followed by two staff members -- one wearing a cast and the other wearing flip-flops -- who were unable to catch her.
The school's principal and a custodian soon followed, Bewley said. School officials insist they never lost sight of the child.
There is a spirited debate in the comments about whether this was mostly the mother's fault ("The blame is all on the mother for not raising the little girl correctly") or the school's ("The little girl is only five years old, for crying out loud. The mother delivered the child to school, who now is in care and custody of the child"). I'm inclined toward the latter view. "In loco parentis" means the school accepts responsibility for those in iits charge during school hours.
And I love this:
"IPS spokeswoman Mary Louise Bewley said Mercedes was immediately followed by two staff members -- one wearing a cast and the other wearing flip-flops -- who were unable to catch her."
Let's not forget the others the school did not send after her: the one legged man, the lady with chains around her feet, the man with shoeboxes for shoes and the teacher who wears snowshoes. How hilarious would it have been to watch someone with a cast on their leg and someone with flip-flops running after a little girl. Priceless!
