By admin 
CASA GRANDE, AZ (AZFamily) — A Casa Grande mother is demanding accountability after her 11-year-old son was left waiting outside his middle school for hours on his first day of sixth grade, triggering a missing person investigation involving seven police officers.
Read more Man wanted for double shooting in Green Valley arrested in Florida
Colton was found safe by a school custodian, but his mother, Gabby Carmody, said the ordeal left him shaken.
“He said he thought I forgot about him. And that broke my heart because I would never forget about him,” she said.
What happened
Carmody said she dropped Colton off for his first day at Casa Grande Middle School but realized afterward she had not told him the bus would be taking him home. Because Colton does not have a cell phone, she called the school and said she was assured by someone at the front desk that staff would tell him which bus to ride.
Colton was expected home at 4:44 p.m. When he did not arrive, Carmody called the school and said she was told the bus was running late. At 5:10 p.m., he still had not arrived so she called again.
“Transportation confirmed that he was on the bus and that he got off the bus,” Carmody said. “And I was like, but he’s not here — like, where is he?”
Search and recovery
Carmody called 911. Neighbors joined police in searching for Colton, while Carmody posted on Facebook asking the community to watch for him.
“I felt helpless,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything. I had to stay here and just hope that he came back.”
Just after 6:45 p.m., a school custodian messaged Carmody to let her know Colton had been at the school the entire time.
“Like a breath of life came back into my heart,” Carmody said. “And that’s my son. I was so happy to see him and I knew he was happy to see me because he started crying and he just didn’t want to leave my side.”
Read more Trump tariffs on trading partners could raise prices for Arizona consumers
Heat exposure and condition
Colton had been waiting outside in temperatures that reached 111 degrees when school let out at 4:15 p.m., dropping to 108 degrees by the time he was found around 7 p.m. He was wearing a jacket, dressed for an air-conditioned building.
“He has a headache from the heat,” Carmody said. “He said that he was really thirsty because he had run out of his water.”
Colton told his mother he didn’t know what he was supposed to do.
“He said that he thought that I was picking him up and he was waiting there for me the whole time,” Carmody said. “He said that no one told him that he was supposed to get on the bus.”
Mother’s response and district statement
Carmody called the incident negligence and said she wants school leadership held responsible.
“I needed him to hold somebody accountable for this because it’s a child’s life,” she said, referencing the assistant superintendent.
The Casa Grande Elementary School District #4 Superintendent, Dr. Adam Leckie, said in a statement that the school has conducted a full review and implemented changes to be sure it doesn’t happen again.
During dismissal on the first day of school, a new 6th-grade student missed their assigned bus and remained on school grounds. We are grateful that the student did the right thing and stayed on campus where he was physically safe. As soon as district officials were notified they immediately responded—meeting the family at their home to coordinate with them directly while personnel checked school facilities. The student was located on the middle school campus shortly thereafter, and district staff personally transported the student home to reunite them with their family. District and school officials have already conducted a full review of the situation and implemented changes to ensure all students board the appropriate school bus or are picked up by parents and that all students are accounted for at the end of the day. Student safety and well-being remain our absolute highest priority.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Read more Netanyahu praises first meeting with Trump since launching the Iran war