PRESCOTT VALLEY, AZ - School officials at a Prescott Valley school say they're investigating a situation in which staff members left a child in the nurse's office after school closed for the day.
A janitor discovered the 7-year-old girl around 4:15 p.m. after classes at Coyote Springs Elementary School had ended and staff had left.
Mariela Bean, a spokesperson for the school says, "We are not taking this lightly."
"We are taking responsibility that this did happen," she said.
According to the girl's mother, Gina Anderson, her daughter had visited the nurse's office on Friday when she was feeling sick, but other clerical staff took care of the girl since the nurse was absent.
Anderson said the girl was placed in the nurse's office, with the door closed.
Bean said the school district is investigating whether the door was locked.
"The entire clerical staff went home for the weekend, forgetting my child in the nurses (sic) office," said Anderson. "If she had not been found by the janitor my daughter would have been locked inside the school for the entire weekend."
The girl's mother, who said her daughter weighs less than fifty pounds, said the door was too heavy for her daughter to push open, and she said the girl thought it was locked. Anderson claimed her daughter pounded on the door for help but could not get anyone's attention, and said her daughter wet her pants because she could not get out of the room to go to the bathroom.
Anderson has since taken her daughter out of the Prescott Valley school.
Bean said the investigation is ongoing and the incident was caused by human error.
She said district officials are interviewing several people who may have been involved in the incident.
"We recognize the responsibility we have in the well-being of our children," Bean said. "We are going to take every step necessary to make sure this never happens again."
Bean said the district is completing a full investigation and plans to follow the district's personnel policies and procedures when they determine what led to the incident.
