The parents of a four-year-old boy who walked half a mile home across four busy roads after wandering out of school claim they were not told he was missing.
Cieran Logue's frantic mother, Michelle McGeever, said that when she was reunited with her son, school officials told her: "Oh good you've found him - we were just looking for him."
Cieran managed to leave St Patrick's RC Primary School, in Deedmoore Road, Wood End, Coventry, last Wednesday afternoon. He walked back to his home in Budbrooke Close, eventually going to a neighbour's house when he found his mother was not in.
It is not known how long the youngster had been missing or how he got out of school on his third day.
Housewife Miss McGeever, aged 25, said: "He knew the way because we walk there every morning but he shouldn't be allowed to just wander out. My neighbour phoned on my mobile and told me he was at her's. That was the first I knew about it - the school had the number and there's no reason they couldn't have phoned me.
"I was in shock and started walking to the school when one of the teachers saw me and said 'I'm glad you've found us, we were just looking for him'.
"Cieran told me the teacher had said 'home time' and he walked home, but after speaking to him for longer I realised he had been playing, got outside and had got stuck there after the gates were closed."
Her neighbour India Mackey, aged 23, who has a four year- old daughter Storm Howe at the same school, said: "Cieran turned up at my house and I asked him where his mum was and he didn't know - I phoned his mum and she was hysterical. He said he had been locked out of school and had decided to come home."
Miss McGeever and her partner Kieran, aged 24, an electrical engineer, decided to send Cieran back to school on Monday because they do not want him falling behind.
"I'm so angry but they have promised there will be fences, gates and alarms installed in the future, but they should have been there before," added Miss McGeever.
St Patrick's head teacher Mary Cantillon said she had a "positive meeting" with Miss McGeever and other parents to discuss security measures.
"Our first call is to the police in an emergency of that nature. If there is a child missing, maximum coverage is our first concern," she said.
"The gates are padlocked between 9.15am and 2.50pm. We are not 100 per cent sure how it happened - our investigations are ongoing. We think when the nursery children were let out at 11.30am Cieran managed to leave with them.
"A female police officer did come to the school after Cieran had been returned to his parents. Myself, the deputy head and a teaching assistant were looking for Cieran in the meantime."
