Parent Of Autistic Teen Found Wandering Speaks Out

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http://cbs4.com/local/autistic.teen.seminole.2.1479598.html

Feb 8, 2010 9:36 pm US/Eastern

Parent Of Autistic Teen Found Wandering Speaks Out

PLANTATION (CBS4)

Missing Autistic Teen Found Wandering Near I-595

Four months after her severely autistic and deaf daughter was found wandering on

I-595, a Coral Springs mother has learned that there's been another incident

involving her safety. And she's speaking out for the first time exclusively to

CBS4 News Reporter Joan Murray.

Back in October, the 13-year-old girl named Yarelys wandered away from Seminole

Middle School in Plantation before a Good Samaritan rescued her on the highway.

" I was panicked. I cried and cried, what happened, where is my daughter? "

Fonseca, the child's mother told CBS4.

The Broward County school district has told Fonseca there is an ongoing

investigation into the I-595 incident. The aide who was in charge of Yarelys has

been reassigned.

Then on January 12th, Yarelys was left alone outside Seminole Middle School

after her school bus arrived late.

" I think, I can't believe it happened again. I don't understand what happened, "

Fonseca said.

Fonseca showed us the e-mail she received from the school on January 12th.

It says, " We are working hard to make sure Yarelys is always supervised. It

concerns us that this morning Yarelys arrived to school after the bell and was

standing out the door looking in. Did you drop her off? Luckily, we saw her

standing there and let her in. "

Fonseca was livid when she saw that e-mail because she realized the school had

no idea that her daughter's bus had arrived. She worries that Yarelys could have

been injured, kidnapped or worse ended up at the bottom of a lake.

Fonseca says she finds it odd that Plantation police knows what happened in the

I-595 incident, the school board knows what happened, but that as a mother she

doesn't have the right to know.

" They promised me the first time it would not happen again and it did, " Fonseca

tells Reporter Joan Murray.

The school district says the principal has assured Fonseca now that someone will

always be there to look out for her child, but Fonseca is skeptical. She cannot

be certain when she puts her child on the school bus that she will return home

safe.