When parents drop off their children at school, they expect them to still be there at pickup. But imagine watching your little one walk to their classroom in the morning, only to be told that afternoon that they were marked absent. Such a scenario would be heart-dropping for any caregiver.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what a mother of a kindergarten student alleges happened with her son. The mom has since spoken out about the terrifying ordeal in a now-viral TikTok video. She also shared video footage from the alleged incident — and TikTok users are urging her to press charges.
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In early August, a mom named Yessii took to TikTok with a video of herself explaining how her son's school allegedly lost him after marking him absent. The clip garnered more than 7.7 million views.
"I drop off my kid 10 minutes before 8 o'clock and I go pick him up at 1, and his teacher's the first one bringing all the other little kids," the mom began. "And I don't see my child, but I'm like, 'Oh, he's probably in the bathroom or something.'"
Eventually, when she asked the teacher where her son was, she was informed he was absent, and her heart dropped.
The office scrambled to find out what happened to the student. "They're like, 'Yeah, Romell has been absent. Like, he wasn't here.'" Yessii continued. "I'm like, 'What are you talking about?' She was like, 'Are you sure he didn't go nowhere else?'"
The mom reiterated that she watched her son go "all the way in" during drop-off.
"So I'm in the office, and I'm freaking out, flipping out, saying, 'Where the h— is my son at? What do you mean he was absent?… Where is my kid at?'" she recounted. "The lady is literally calling every frickin' kindergarten teacher, and I see nothing is like happening."
The mom took it into her own hands to find her child. Yessii explained that she started running through the halls, screaming her son's name.
"I literally run out at the playground and I'm, like, looking for him," she said. "And then I see like a supervisor, you know, supervising the children … and then I see a little kid coming to me bawling his eyes out And I'm like, 'What are you doing here?!' and I literally just grabbed my baby and hugged him."
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In a follow-up TikTok video, Yessii shared how the scenario played out from her point of view.
"Here is a video for you mommies to get an idea how i felt," she wrote in the caption. "I FELT LIKE THE WORLD CAME DOWN TO ME !! Like I lost the MOST PRECIOUS THING IN MY LIFE AND MY MOTIVATION TO LIFE!! ."
She added in text overlain on the video, "My poor baby was so confused! He was having P.E. with a first grade class. Mind u he is suppose to be up in the front for pickup @1 w the rest of the kindergarten class."
TikTok users urged her to take action against the school.
In the comments, one TikTok user pointed out, "You were having a panic attack I’m so glad you got him ❣️."
Another observed: "The lack of empathy from the staff! Sorry you had to experience this!"
Someone else declared, "Girl sue!! Lawsuit!!! ASAP," while another echoed, "He needs a new school asap! Get an attorney! I’m so sorry this happened to you ."
