A Georgia School Can’t Find a Student, the Mom Wants Answers

A Georgia mother expected to spend part of her daughter’s birthday dropping off cupcakes at school. Instead, she said she arrived to discover the first-grader was not in her classroom — and school staff initially could not tell her who she was with.

Jacqueline Beauchamp told WSAV that she had called West Chatham Elementary School beforehand to make sure she could bring birthday treats. When she arrived, she learned someone else had already brought food and her daughter was outside having lunch.

The problem, Beauchamp said, was that the school could not identify who had taken the child out of the classroom. She said there was no ID or sign-out signature on file, and she and school administrators spent roughly 40 minutes searching the parking lot. The girl was eventually spotted walking back toward the school.

The relative turned out to be the child’s stepsister, according to the family. Beauchamp said the family had not been in contact with her for about five years because of a personal issue and that she was not an approved person to pick up the child. Savannah-Chatham County Public School System later acknowledged that staff had been reminded to verify which adults are authorized to sign students out.

Birthday Detour

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The district’s account narrows an important part of what happened.

In a statement provided to local news outlets, SCCPSS said the first-grader had several visitors bringing birthday goodie bags on Sept. 3. Her stepsister arrived with cupcakes and Chick-fil-A, and school staff allowed the child to eat lunch with her in the parking lot.

The district said the girl never left school property. When Beauchamp arrived a few minutes later and realized her daughter was not in the classroom, the child was eventually found walking from the relative’s vehicle back toward the school.

That distinction did little to address Beauchamp’s main concern: how the child had been allowed out with that relative in the first place.

“The person who got her was never an authorized person to pick her up,” Beauchamp told WSAV.

The Missing Piece

SCCPSS’s own response indicates that student-release procedures became an issue after the incident.

Staff were reminded about sign-out protocols and the need to verify approved adults who have permission to sign out a student, according to the district statement carried by WTOC and WSAV.

That verification is normally tied to PowerSchool, the student-information system used by the district. SCCPSS said an office memo was issued instructing front-office staff to verify IDs in PowerSchool after what happened.

Beauchamp described the period when nobody could immediately tell her where her daughter was as terrifying.

“Who was she with? What are they doing to her? Are they crossing state lines at this point?” she recalled wondering while searching.

The family told WSAV that the girl was gone from the classroom for long enough that the uncertainty felt far longer than the roughly 40-minute search.

After The Search

Beauchamp also filed a police report over the incident, according to WTOC.

There is an important difference between the family’s description and some of the language surrounding the story: the district says the child never left school property. The girl had been in the parking lot with her stepsister rather than removed from the campus.

But SCCPSS did not treat the episode as normal procedure.

“We regret that this incident happened and have taken steps to insure it does not happen again,” the district said in its statement.

The district said the matter was handled administratively with the staff members responsible and that front-office employees received the memo concerning ID verification in PowerSchool.