A 5-year-old at Pleasant Green Elementary in Magna ended up at home alone after leaving the school building during an early-pickup process, his mother says. Amber Adams said she arrived Wednesday to check Carter out and staff could not locate him; about 25 minutes later, he was safe at home.
Adams told FOX 13 News Utah she had picked Carter up early before without a problem. This time, she said, no one escorted him from his classroom to the front office. Adams said the vice principal searched for him by car while staff tried to find him, and that Carter had instead left through the school’s front door and made his way home.
A 20-Minute Walk Across Busy Streets
Adams said the walk from Pleasant Green Elementary to her home takes about 20 minutes and involves crossing two main roads. She feared Carter might take a wrong turn, be hit by a car or encounter a stranger. He was found safe at home, but Adams said the incident left her shaken and prompted her to speak publicly.
Granite School District’s account, reported by FOX 13 News, was that Carter had left his classroom before the school day ended. The district said he appeared to have been told he was being checked out but left the building instead of going to the front office. It said it regretted the incident and that student safety was its primary concern.
District Says Procedures Have Changed
The district told FOX 13 News the school had changed its procedures, but did not specify what those changes were. Adams said she had received emails saying pickups would no longer be allowed after 3:15 p.m. and that administrators were considering fencing around the property. She is urging Granite School District and other districts to strengthen safety measures.
Checkout procedures at other schools within the same district offer a window into how the process is designed to work. Guidance posted by Granite School District's Lakeridge Elementary, a separate school in the district, states plainly that “we will not release students to anyone that is not on the list,” and that anyone checking out a child “must be 18 years or older,” “must be on the students contact list,” and “must bring valid ID.” That same guidance also cautions families that retrieving a student may take longer if the child is at lunch, recess, gym, art, or the library — a reminder that even routine checkouts can involve delays while staff locate a student inside the building.
What Utah’s rule says about student release
Utah State Board of Education Rule R277-400 requires evacuation procedures to provide reasonable care and supervision until a student is released to a responsible party. It also bars a school from releasing a student in grade 8 or below unless a parent or other responsible person has been notified and assumed responsibility, according to the Utah State Board of Education. The cited provision addresses evacuations, not routine early pickups.
A Pattern Beyond Utah
Magna's incident echoes a case roughly 1,500 miles away, where a Fairless Elementary School student reportedly walked about 1.5 miles home after being missing for two hours, as reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader. A former teacher at that Ohio school was accused of failing to properly check on the student and failing to notify others after discovering the child was missing. The Fairless Local School District superintendent said afterward that “the safety and security of our students is the top priority.”
For Adams, the comparison underscores why she wants to see concrete changes rather than just apologies. She has not said whether the proposed fencing or the new pickup cutoff at Pleasant Green Elementary have been finalized, only that the school has communicated those possible steps to families since Carter's walk home. Until then, she said, her focus remains on making sure what happened to her son doesn't happen to someone else's child.
