Autistic Child's Parents 'livid' at Castle School for allowing him to run-away

The parents of an autistic child are 'livid' at Castle School for allowing him to run-away.

Staff at Castle School have said "sorry" to the parents of Daniel Hankin, aged 9, and autistic, after a member of his 1-1 staff ,"who was abstracted from him by another pupil", allowed the child to run-away from their grounds.

Staff at Castle School "forgot to close the gate", allowing Daniel to escape into a 'dangerous environment'.

Castle School dialled 999, shortly after realising he wasn't around, and it took #police 25 minutes to find Daniel.

Castle School said: “The pupil was out of school for a period of no longer than 25 minutes before being returned safely, and unharmed."

"The trust, in agreement with Northumbria Police, and the Local Authority Designated Officer, conducted a thorough internal investigation to determine how the incident came to pass, and ensure any lessons are learnt to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future."

“We are liaising with the child’s family, and have apologised for the distress that this event has undoubtedly caused.”

Daniel's mum, Carol, said: “I really did trust them, but now I’m so anxious. My nerves are gone."

"Every time the phone rings, and I see it’s the school, I worry that they’re going to say something has happened again. I’m terrified it could happen to another child. Anything could have happened to him, I could have been planning a funeral.”

They didn’t ring us until after it had happened, after he was back. We should have been told straight away.”