Reacting to the great escape
Cars and trucks tend to speed along Lone Pine Road in Amwell Township. The berms are narrow and it’s not safe for anyone to stroll along, let alone a 6-year-old gone A.W.O.L. from kindergarten.
The incident occurred Tuesday when Ethan Thomas decided he’d rather be at home than at Trinity South Elementary School.
According to his mother, Ethan left the lunchroom, stopped by his classroom to tell his substitute teacher he had permission for early dismissal and then walked out the school’s front door.
The reaction to his “escape” was immediate, and perhaps a little overzealous. Trinity School District plans to spend up to $50,000 to put alarms on all doors of the district’s schools.
We do not mean to minimize the gravity of this incident; the boy could easily have been hit by a car along that road. But we can’t suppress a smile when considering the child’s cheeky ingenuity. How many other kids could pull something like that off? Has this happened before? Is it really necessary to alarm all the doors over a single incident?
Perhaps requiring a note from home for early dismissal and a little more adult supervision should be the concern here.