Grandparents want answers after autistic grandson found wandering in Sunrise neighborhood

Family members are demanding answers after they say a stranger found their autistic grandson wandering in a Sunrise neighborhood when he was supposed to be at school.

Chris Thompson said someone dropped the ball.

“Somebody needs to be held accountable for this,” Thompson said. “Apparently, they just let him walk out the gate.”

He got a frantic phone call from his wife last Wednesday.

“Screaming, just crying, I’m trying to figure out what’s going on,” Thompson said. 

She said their 9-year-old grandson, Asai, who has autism, was not at tutoring at Royal Palm Elementary School in Lauderhill.

“She said, is Asai with you? I said, no, I’m about to pick him up from the school right now,” Thompson said. “She said, no, he’s not, he’s with a stranger somewhere.”

Thompson was able to get in touch with someone from the school district, who he said couldn’t tell him why his grandson was not in school.

He soon learned that someone found him alone in a neighborhood that’s about a 15-minute walk away.

“He saw this child wandering back and forth trying to figure out where to go, he figured out he was lost, and so he asked him, do you need help? But Asai, being autistic, he couldn’t communicate that properly,” Thompson said.

Thompson and his wife went to the neighborhood to pick up Asai, then they drove back to the school to figure out what happened.

“Nobody had any answers; they didn’t even know he wasn’t at tutoring,” Thompson said. “Scared, I always think about what could have happened if this wasn’t a law-abiding citizen, it could have been anybody.”

Thompson said his grandson told him he didn’t see anyone in the cafeteria for tutoring.

“In his mind, tutoring wasn’t going on, so he walked out to the gate where I pick him up, and he didn’t see me, he kept walking and realized he walked too far,” Thompson said. “The teachers and principal were upset at him, but it wasn’t his fault; he’s the one who’s autistic. You can’t blame him on his disorder.”

Broward County Public Schools sent NBC6 a statement saying they were aware of the incident “involving a student who left a supervised area of the campus. The student was safely reunited with their parent.”

“The school has reviewed its supervision and dismissal protocols and has implemented additional measures and communication procedures to help ensure this does not occur again. School administrators continue to maintain ongoing communication with the student’s family,” the statement read.

Thompson read the same statement.

“This is unacceptable right here,” Thompson said. “It’s like they’re overlooking the situation.”

He is worried this could happen again, and he wants to see change.

“Dealing with autism, he should be escorted from every point,” Thompson said. “How did he fall through the loophole? Like I said, we could be having a different conversation right now.”

NBC6 also reached out to Lauderhill Police for more information.