Tonight Peter and Grace told me a story about a boy in Peter’s class. Grace wanted to tell me the story and she said to Peter before starting, I want to tell the story. You just let me know if I get anything wrong.
This particular boy asks to go the the bathroom. His helper can’t go with him, since she’s a girl and he’s a boy, so he goes alone.
Why does he have a helper, I asked.
I know that over the years there have been kids with various learning disabilities in their classes who have someone with them all day long, helping.
Peter, very matter of factly answered, He has Asperger’s Syndrome.
Oh, I replied. We know about that.
One of the neighborhood kid has it and the kids have learned to deal with it.
After about 20 minutes and the boy still hasn’t returned, the teacher sends another boy to look for him. He comes back to report the boy is gone.
Apparently, they discover that the boy snuck out a back door of the school and went to the bus stop in front of the school. He caught a city bus to UNC, where his parents work.
(Here is where both Peter and Grace have their reliability questioned).
Peter’s teacher and another woman from the school went up to UNC Campus, found him and brought him back to school.
(It was not clear whether he went to see his dad or his mom, nor was it clear if it was the university or the hospital.)
And finally, the teacher looked in the boy’s desk and found a map of the school with an arrow drawn from the classroom to the door. It said Escape Route at the top.
There is a very surreal story, but even with my usually reliable, but this time seemingly unreliable narrators, I can’t even imagine how a teacher responds to a kid disappearing from school. Head up to the university campus and look for him?
