As most teachers do, Julie Murray of the Riverview School in Queens sent parents home a self-made form to get to know their children a bit more as the school year started. Vanessa Fontaine responded to Murray in detail about her son Avonte, emphasizing his special needs. "“Safety concerns — Please make sure you keep an eye out he likes to run,” she wrote. “Need 1-1 supervisor will leave the building." On October 4th, 2013, she was proven right.
These are the latest revelations to come from a 12-page report (PDF) on the disappearance of Avonte Oquendo, the 14-year-old missing autistic mute boy who sparked a citywide weeks-long manhunt that gripped the people and government of New York City. The conclusion of the story came on January 16th, 2014, when human remains washed up in the East River. They were identified as belonging to Avonte.
The report was done by the Special Commissioner of Investigation in the Department of Education. It outlines a minute-by-minute timeline of the events that occurred on the fateful day in October, highlighting when and where multiple officials were when Avonte ran. All of the educators were helping other children; in other words: just doing their job.
City officials state the school requires pre-approval of forms like the one Ms. Murray sent out to parents, but she wasn't aware of that. That's why the form Vanessa Fontaine submitted to Julie Murray never left her classroom, and the alarming information it contained was only known by the teacher and the paraprofessionals present. It hadn't been passed along to the school's administration or, more importantly, NYPD security guard Bernadette Perez, who was on duty alone at the front desk when Avonte left the building, while her other partner was on lunch. She works at three different schools and didn't know Avonte at the time, or the fact that he was mute.
From the report:
Although she now knows it was Avonte, at the time, SSA Perez did not know the student or which school he was from. SSA Perez observed the boy run past the elevators toward the women’s bathroom. Twice SSA Perez called out “excuse me” to the boy, but he did not respond. SSA Perez could not chase after the student because she was the only SSA at the main security desk and could not leave her post.
After the fact, Perez was distracted by another student's parents, so it wasn't until she was relieved of her position did she notice the open door, not realizing, of course, at the time that this was Avonte's way out. The report continues:
SSA Perez was not patrolling the building when she noticed the open door. SSA Perez did not know how long the door was open because she could not see the door when she was behind the security desk.
This sequence of events paints a harrowing portrait of bureaucratic missteps and lack of communication, all of which resulted in the heartbreaking death of a vulnerable 14-year-old boy. The family, who recently thanked the community for helping them with the search, is planning on suing the city.
