CROWN HEIGHTS — A Crown Heights School briefly lost an 8-year-old boy Thursday, after leaving the boy at the side of the road because he didn't have permission to go on a class field trip, a police source said.
Officers from Crown Heights' 71st Precinct were called to search for the missing student, who followed his class out of P.S. 161 on Crown Street near Nostrand Avenue en route to a field trip, only to be turned away at the bus because his parents hadn't signed his permission slip, a police source told DNAinfo.com New York.
The boy told his classmates he was headed to Prospect Park, but only made it as far as the shops on Nostrand Avenue, where police soon found him browsing.
P.S. 161 parent Mitzila West, 35, who heard about the disappearance when she came to pick up her 6-year-old daughter from the school, said it was the second incident in which a child had wandered away from the school in recent months.
West and other parents said a student about the same age left the school and walked home in the middle of the day earlier this month.
P.S. 161 Principal Michael Johnson said the boy did not leave the building with his class, but wandered out after the class had already left, according to the Education Department.
Johnson denied there was an earlier incident.
"I'm not surprised. This is the second time I'm hearing about a kid wandering off," said West. "Let's say I forgot to sign a permission slip and my kid's on Nostrand Avenue. That's not safe."
