Boy, 5, walks home from school alone

HOUSTON School lets out from Dodson Elementary School at 3pm, but on Friday, Davison Muchiri was knocking on his own door at 11:30am. He had walked a dangerous route home, and the school didn't even know.

With cars whizzing by, crossing the feeder roads along the Gulf Freeway is dangerous, even for an adult, Now try doing it as a child.

"A five-year-old, he'll be six in July -- he's in the kindergarten," said Marvia Muchiri.

Muchiri is fuming about the journey her son, Davion, was able to make during school.

"He's five years old. Someone should have been watching," she said.

He told his mom he found himself all alone outside Dodson Elementary School and couldn't get back in after an outing with his class, so he slipped through a side gate and walked home.

"At least a half a mile, at least," Muchiri said about the distance her son had to have walked to get home, which is across two freeway feeder roads and down at least three side streets.

"What could have happened, what could have happened?" Muchiri wondered. "My child could have been kidnapped. God knows he could have been hit by a car."

In a statement, the district says, "All HISD safety policies and procedures were followed. HISD police and the boy's parents were notified as soon as the child was discovered missing."

But Muchiri says it was an hour after her son had already been home before she heard from the school.

"Someone should be punished," she said.

There's only three weeks left this school year, and Muchiri says she'll worry every one of those days.

"Even if it was a mistake, it's a mistake that shouldn't have happened because it's their job to take care of our kids," she said. "We're home thinking they're safe and comfortable when they're not."

Teachers in their own cars did search for the boy, and school plant workers checked the fence Friday, but since there was no hole in the actual fence, there are no plans to close those gaps between the locked gates.

As for punishment for his teacher, the district says she'll most likely receive a letter of reprimand in her file.