Parents say school let 5-year-old walk home alone

PEARLAND, Texas -- Parents of a 5-year-old girl says a staff member at Barbara Cockrell Elementary School allowed their daughter to walk home by herself.

"As a parent, my wife and I both were in shock," Javier said.

In home surveillance video, the kindergartner is shown trying to get into her home after school. When she couldn't remember the alarm code, she walked away into the street.

"I'm at my desk doing normal work and all of a sudden my phone goes off saying there's an alarm going off," Javier said. "When I pick up my phone, I saw the video."

According to Javier, his daughter was supposed to be at her daycare after going to school. Instead, her father says, she ended up in the walk home line at school instead of the daycare pickup line.

"Why wasn't the person in charge of that line notifying the office instead of asking my daughter which line are you supposed to be in?" he asked.

Javier said the school apologized to them when it happened last month. A neighbor saw the girl and kept her safe until her parents arrived.

"We don't want this to happen to any other children. The process has to be improved. That means making sure every tag is looked at before a kid walks in and walks out," Javier added.