DETROIT – A Detroit mother has a lot of questions after she said a charter school left her two young children unsupervised outside for hours.
The mother, Chalmaine Hobbs, admits she wasn't aware that school had let out early, but she never imagined the school would just leave her children outside in the cold on the playground. She has since filed a report with police.
The brother and sister are students at Detroit Innovation Academy.
Honesti Hawk, a first-grader, and her brother Jaydyen Williams, a fourth-grader head into their Thanksgiving break after a cold and dangerous adventure.
"I told her, 'If somebody touches her, yell, scream, or run to me,' or something," Williams said.
The charter school on the city's west side let out at 11:30 a.m. and when the ride for Hawk and Williams wasn't there, they said the staff told them to go to the park.
"She told us to get out and go to the park. We didn't know she was gonna make us go to the park," Williams said.
"She's telling me to go and my mama ain't even here, like, seriously, you want me to go and I'm a little girl," Hawk said.
Their mother said the children, ages 10 and 6, were left unsupervised at a playground on school property for more than an hour.
Detroit Innovation Academy acknowledges Williams and Hawk were left at the park, but they're not saying how the mistake happened or what should have been done. Officials will only say it's an open investigation and refused to comment further.
By the time the mother arrived at 1 p.m., the doors at the school were locked and she's relieved her children were OK.
"I want all the parents to know they're not paying attention. They're just leaving our kids," she said.
The children did not have any cellphones with them at the school.