AVALON PARK, Fla. – Parents of a 5-year-old boy said they want changes after their son was allowed to walk home from school alone.
The parents said the boy had no idea how to get home and had walked close to 2 miles in the wrong direction before he was found.
Kayden Ricks is a first-grader at Timber Lakes Elementary School. His parents said he was released with other students who walk, but they are older. He ended up alone and lost until two teens found him.
"It's like he did a circle trying to find his way," said 10th grader Demaris Raimundo.
Kayden Ricks' parents were at Timber Lakes Elementary, but he wasn't.
"They call him, no answer," said his father, Alleton Ricks. "I'm very nervous at this point. My son, he's a first grader. He's 5, hasn't been at the school for a week."
Alleton Ricks had just seen his son minutes before, but after the father was told to wait in the pickup line, by then, Kayden was released with walkers.
The girls who found him said he walked more than a mile, passing traffic and missing sidewalks.
"He's so little and alone and we're like, 'Well, that's not right,'" said Raimundo.
She was walking to study with her friend Sarah Sheehin when they spotted Kayden walking and sweating.
"I was like, 'Do you know your phone number?' (He said,) 'No,'" said Sheehin.
So Sheehin called her father, who suggested she look for a number on his backpack.
"(Kayden's mom) gets this miracle phone call from two students at Timber Lakes Elementary," said Alleton Ricks.
Kayden's parents were relieved and thankful, but Kayden said he wasn't fazed. He recalled it like an adventure.
"I just saw the football thing, then I got a ride, then I went to home," said Kayden.
The Orange County School District said the incident is being investigated, but could not speak on the details because of student privacy laws.