BRANTFORD -- The parents of a two-year-old boy say that their son was somehow able to leave the Montessori school he was attending and wander three streets away before he was found.
The Grinton family says they dropped off their son Benjamin on Tuesday like any other day. Then, about an hour later, the family got a call.
"The highest level of panic, I had never had that feeling in my life before," Ashley Grinton remembers.
Benjamin had managed to leave the school property unnoticed.
In a statement, Montessori House of Children confirms that a child was able to leave the playground on Tuesday morning.
The school says that it's the first time in 13 years that such an incident has happened and that the boy was missing for about 10 minutes.
The family says that it was lucky that Benjamin walked by the Brant Family and Children's Services, where an employee noticed him walking by himself.
"They called the police and they identified Ben by a tag in his coat," explains the boy's father, Alex Grinton.
"She probably saved his life," the boy's mother says.
The Brant FACS says it takes their mandate of child safety extremely seriously and that they try to understand all circumstances that bring kids to their attention.
While the family is thankful that Benjamin was found safe, they want answers from the school as to how this could have happened.
They say they won't be sending their son back.
"You pick a daycare for your child, you know that’s the ultimate trust that a parent gives," Alex Grinton says.
"These are your babies, so it’s just that feeling that you can’t trust people with your kid. It was just an awful feeling."
The school says it has installed a self-latching gate and has contacted the Ministry of Education.
