A 5-year-old Dighton Elementary School student with autism walked away from recess last week, made his way down the school's long driveway and headed toward a busy state road before police found him safe. The boy ended up near Route 138 after wandering off the playground unsupervised, and the district is now apologizing and overhauling its safety practices in response.
According to Turn to 10, the boy walked off the playground during recess and was picked up by police after arriving at a nearby home. Per WPRI, the incident happened on Oct. 20, when the child wandered off during recess and was found walking alone on a main road. As reported by WHDH, the Dighton Elementary School playground is not enclosed, a detail that looms large over the entire episode.
From the Driveway to a Busy Road
The station's report lays out the boy's path in detail: he walked down the school's long driveway, turned onto Center Street and continued a few houses down, just around the corner from busy Route 138.
WHDH spoke with Michelle Swartz, who has a son in the same special needs program as the boy, and who said she was relieved the boy was okay. Swartz said the program has staffing shortages and that there is not enough staff to keep students protected, according to the station.
Superintendent Apologizes, Launches Investigation
Dighton-Rehoboth Schools Superintendent Bill Runey apologized to the child's family and the community, acknowledging a breakdown in safety protocols, the same account notes. Runey said the district will hire an independent investigator to review the incident and ensure accountability, and per WHDH, that outside investigator has been brought on specifically to determine how the child bypassed staff. The district also self-reported the incident to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, the station notes.
Fence, Monitors and Staffing Review Underway
Dighton-Rehoboth Schools says it is taking immediate steps, starting with a fence at the spot where the student left campus. The district hopes to complete installation by next week, and WHDH reports the planned fence will be high enough to visually deter children and make escape difficult. The district is also reinstating lunch and recess monitor positions that had previously been eliminated during budget cuts, and it is reestablishing supervision protocols and reviewing staffing ratios, the outlet reports.
A Statewide Staffing Strain
The Dighton incident lands amid a broader special-education staffing crunch across Massachusetts. One out of every three special education instructors leaves the classroom each year, according to The Boston Globe. The paper also found that nearly one in four special education teachers in the state isn't fully certified, even as the share of students with disabilities in Massachusetts public schools climbed from 18 percent in 2020 to 21 percent this year. In one district the Globe examined, a special-education staffing shortage led officials to try combining two classrooms, an arrangement state regulators rejected because the single teacher assigned was not readily available to provide support and supervision to both classes at once.
Similar wandering incidents have surfaced outside Massachusetts in recent days. In central Pennsylvania, a Hamilton Elementary School student with autism wandered off the school's playground unnoticed during recess and was found 15 minutes later in a nearby creek, according to PennLive. That outlet reported it was the third time this year a School District of Lancaster elementary student with autism had wandered off school grounds, following an 8-year-old who traveled half a mile from Carter & MacRae Elementary School in May and an 11-year-old found several blocks from Fulton Elementary School in February.
Back in Dighton, the scope and findings of the newly hired investigation have not yet been made public, nor has the outcome of the district's report to the Department of Children and Families. For now, families like Swartz's are left watching to see whether the promised fence, restored monitor positions and staffing review translate into a playground that actually keeps young children inside its boundaries.
