Orellano Not the First Child to Leave School Compound Unnoticed

It’s been three days since six-year-old autistic student Gabriel Orellano tragically drowned in the hangar area after slipping away unnoticed from the Stella Maris School compound. The Ministry of Education has since launched a full investigation into this devastating incident. But was this the first time a child left the campus undetected? A grief-stricken mother of another autistic student at the school has come forward, revealing that just two weeks ago, her child also managed to leave the campus unnoticed. She now regrets not speaking out sooner, believing that doing so might have prompted increased security measures and potentially saved Gabriel’s life. Tonight, she shares her story, shedding light on the immense challenges the staff at Stella Maris face daily with limited resources. News Five’s Paul Lopez brings us this poignant report.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

News Five has been closely following the sad story of six-year-old Gabriel Orellano, an autistic student who unfortunately drowned in the hangar area after leaving the Stella Maris School compound undetected on Monday. Tonight, we hear from a distraught parent of a five-year-old autistic student at Stella Maris, who reveals that her son also managed to leave the school grounds unnoticed just two weeks ago.

 

Selenie Williams, Mother of Stella Maris Student

“I did think long and hard about doing this. I wait a few days to come out to shar my experience and reason being when it comes to have a special needs child you are always over protective. The world is every mean and they don’t understand and the reason I didn’t speak out earlier is because I just have a fear of my child being neglected or treated bad at school.”

 

Selenie Williams shared that her son, Skyler Valencio, who is autistic and mute, managed to slip out of the school compound during lunch break on that fateful afternoon. He wandered over to the neighboring YWCA property.

 

Selenie Williams

“Why I am really upset about the situation is because they wouldn’t have told us that my child had left the school compound. My child left from Stella Maris and went over to YWCA. There is one fence that divides it. My niece goes to YWCA and it was around that same lunch time whereby they are, I guess, unsupervised. And, they state it was a hole in the fence that my child went through a hole and went over. My brother in law was taking my niece to YWCA and he heard they were looking for a child. When he came back form taking the baby to the class, he saw they were taking my baby. He asked why child is over at YWCA. They brushed him off and took the child back over. So, when he got home, he called my mom and my mom addressed the principal and her entire mood was  just thank god nothing happened to the baby. So, I took it upon myself to go to school. I went to the principal and the first thing she told me; I already spoke to someone over the phone, what is the problem. What do you mean, what is the problem. You need to explain to me why my child was from one school, over to the next school. At that time when YWCA kids are coming in, the gate is closing and opening. But they explained at YWCA is that he saw the park and loves to play in the park and so he stopped and was playing in the park and that is when the teachers at YWCA noticed. They held him in the office until the principal was able to come and get him.”

 

News Five has learned that Skyler Valencio wasn’t the first student to slip past wardens and leave the school compound. When Williams visited the school, she recorded her conversation with the school’s principal, Francelia Cantun, to gain further clarity on her concerns. That private recording was shared with News Five. The school’s principal explained that Skyler might have climbed over the fence or found a hole to get through. The principal also highlighted the daily challenges the school faces, being under-resourced while caring for one hundred and twenty-nine children with special needs.

 

Voice of: Francelia Cantun, Principal, Stella Maris

“As the child went over they called me from Y and told me that the child went over there. You know the child; he crossed over the fence. We found a hole, we patched the hole, but I told a teacher we want to do it sturdier, so we are getting materials and whatever so we are going to fix it. I came here in 2021. We only had three wardens. We have had incidents because we are dealing with one hundred and twenty-nine including your children. The same way your child gives trouble, we have a hundred and twenty-eight more to deal with. So, three wardens was not enough. So I call ministry and requested for three more wardens. After a whole year we finally got three more wardens. After all of that, we don’t have enough eyes to watch these children. We have had incidents already that a child went through the gate and was going across and someone by the Matron Roberts saw the child and brought back the child, because the child was in uniform. So we ask the parents please bring the child in uniform, because people know our uniform. So miss, it is not because we are not watching them. As I told you we got three more people to assist us and with all that this incident happen.”

 

Principal Cantun reassured parents that the school is doing its best despite the tough circumstances. She apologized for the incident and pointed out another hazard on school grounds that needs to be addressed.

 

Voice of: Francelia Cantun

“And the thing is that whosoever was the principal before got a lot of rocks and things all over the place, so that is what he used to climb over and I already call city council to help us move and get all those rocks away and they promised and nuh come do it yet. So, a lot things is beyond our control. I know in July the whole school will be worked on, because we have the roof leaking. So they will reconstruct the whole school and do landscaping and will remove the rocks.”

 

Principal Cantun suggested that parents consider sending someone to supervise their children during lunchtime if they feel their child might be unsafe. In response, Williams asked the school to contact her immediately if anything happened to her child.

 

Voice of: Francelia Cantun

“Me nuh like worry people and put people out of the way. If something mih happen to your child, of course I would call. Nothing happened to ah. All ih do dah cross over, the lady saw him and we brought him over. To me being in this profession and dealing with these kind of children, it was not anything out of the way. We even had a time when a child caught a city bus, a lady saw him and brought him back to school.”

 

We reached out to Principal Cantun for a response, and she directed us to Christy Almeida, the Special Education Coordinator at the Ministry of Education. We contacted Almeida to see if the ministry was aware of the cases Cantun mentioned, especially since Minister of Education Francis Fonseca expressed some uncertainty about them on Wednesday.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education.

“I am not aware, I cant speak to that. But over the many years I would not be surprised if from time to time children, the special needs community requires focus attention and very active. So, from time to time I would imagine some of them have gotten out of the compound and fortunately in those cases, no harm has come to them.”

 

Selenie Williams

“My entire point is not to bad mouth the school. The school is a very good school. My child has improved so much. I have seen children improve. That is not my point. I love the teachers. They do take care of the children. They do learn. I love everything about the school. I was thinking so hard about sending my child there. I am glad I did. I love the school. It is just the security situation and I want to bring awareness so they can do something about it.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez