A missing child call went out mid day from Hollywood Elementary School on July 17th where a three year old autistic girl was found missing after a head count was taken during outside play time.
Police Department responded to the call from the school and immediately went to initial scene to locate the missing child. According to Zena Thomas, public relations speaker for St. Mary’s County Public Schools, the child was found near a stream at the edge of the playground, just a short distance from where the other children were playing.
At the elementary school, there is a summer autism camp held throughout the summer designed for preschool aged children with autism. At the time of the incident there was the usual three person amount of staff members who normally deal with a total of ten children in the program.
On this day there was only nine children total, meaning that when the child went missing the head count turned up eight. “[The missing child] was just playing in the sand and didn’t know she was missing,” Thomas told the Bay Net.
Each day the children have a play time outside on the playground before the end of the day. Afterwards buses come to the school and take each student home, directly to their front door.
The child was reported missing between 11:00 and 11:15. Having Trooper 7, a helicopter, scanning the area to help locate, their were also multiple police vehicles in the area, with officer walking the area in search. After police had located the little girl, the scare was over and the camp was able to finish for the day.