HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — The Richmond Montessori School has suspended two teachers pending the outcome of an internal investigation after a driver rescued a toddler from the school who ran into Parham Road Friday morning.
Tre Waddy was driving on Parham Road that morning when he saw a toddler running down the side of the road.
He jumped out and saved the child when they started running into traffic.
“This can't happen again,” Waddy said Monday.
Waddy’s dash camera captured what happened.
He said after he brought the child to safety, he walked onto the campus of Richmond Montessori School and spoke to one of the child’s teachers.
“I was like, 'I literally scooped him off the road, not the grass, on the road,'" Waddy said. "I don’t know what I would expect the reaction to be, but it wasn’t that."
Waddy worried that the school might not tell the child’s parents or the school community about what happened.
“Sometimes, you just gotta live in the real world, and if all the parties are safe and everything is accounted for, why tell? It sucks to think that way,” Waddy said.
So, he shared the video with our Jon Burkett, who covered the incident on Saturday night for the 11 p.m. news.
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One hour later, the Interim Head of the School, Kimberly Waite, sent a message to the school community saying a toddler departed his teachers while walking outdoors on Friday and ran into Parham Road.
We requested an interview with Waite, but she declined. When we asked a spokesperson for the school if school administrators learned about the incident from our story, or from staff members watching the child on Friday, they said the school is focused on gathering the facts and would need to refer us back to their media statement.
“I think you should be ahead of this. You’re already so far behind. The more you’re like, 'I don’t want to do interviews,' the more you’re going to be in the mud, the faster you are sinking in the quicksand,” Waddy said.
Emily Charreun, the school’s Director of Marketing and Communications, sent us this statement:
Richmond Montessori School is deeply troubled by an incident that occurred on our campus on Friday, November 22. A toddler was able to wander away from his class and was rescued by a Good Samaritan in traffic on Parham Road. We will be eternally grateful to this individual. The two teachers responsible for the child’s safety have been suspended pending a full investigation of the incident, which will be completed as soon as possible. Additional action against both teachers, up to and including termination, is under review. In addition, Richmond Montessori School is conducting a campus safety audit and implementing immediate additional safety measures including:
- Any outdoor activities outside of a fenced area, including nature walks, have been suspended pending the completion of our safety audit.
- We will be adding more fencing or barriers to campus to prevent any student from wandering towards Parham Road in the future
- All staff will receive additional safety training
We recognize that every day, our parents entrust us with their children, and we take that responsibility and partnership seriously. We intend to maintain that trust by learning from this incident and making the changes we have outlined.
We shared the statement with Waddy, who said, “If I am going to be honest with you there are words and then there are actions. That’s a very strong, powerful thing to say, but it’s all about what happens after that.”
Karina Bolster with the Henrico Police Department’s Office of Public Affairs said, "Detectives with our Special Victims Unit (SVU) received an alert from Child Protective Services (CPS) about this incident,” on Monday morning. "Our detectives will work with CPS to determine if there are any criminal violations."
This is a developing story. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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