FREDERICK, Okla_ A four-year-old Frederick girl walked away from her school.
The girl's mother said she just happened to be at home when little Gracie suddenly appeared at the front door just before noon.
An executive director for the head start where Gracie goes everyday said they aren't sure how the young girl slipped off school grounds.
Erica Jeffcoat, Gracie's mother, said she's just thankful nothing bad happened to her baby girl.
"I just stared at her and asked her said what are you doing, what are you doing, what are you doing here? She just said she was thirsty and cold."
Gracie had just walked home from the head start, a little less than a mile from they live.
"I started getting mad, I knew she was supposed to be at school, you know and she just walked home," Jeffcoat said.
The little girl told her mother she made sure to stay on the grass, look both ways before crossing the street and not talk to strangers.
"There's like four registered sex offenders in this town," Jeffcoat said. "Anybody could have picked her up and took her or she could have gotten lost and forgot her way home and not remembered and took the wrong road and could have ended up anywhere."
She said not too long after her daughter arrived, the school called to let her know Gracie was missing.
They said teachers let the young girl go to the restroom unattended, thinking she would return to class.
School officials said their normal procedure is to have a teacher escort any child to the restroom, but said there were enough adults around the time the toddler went to the bathroom, teachers didn't think it was necessary they tag along.
The Community Action Development Center Executive Director Brent Morey said this was the first incident of its kind in their 35 years of service.
"We're conducting an internal investigation how a child was able to get outside the facility without being detected."
He said teachers and staff administrators at the head start are being re-educated on what to do to make sure it doesn't happen again.
"Our concern is for the utmost safety of the children and we take this very seriously."
"Glad she's okay," Jeffcoat said. "I'm glad she's home. She made it home by herself. I'm still a little shaken up by it."
Morey didn't say what kind of training is being done to help ensure another child doesn't wander off the school grounds.
Jeffcoat said she won't let her daughter return there until she sees proof security measures are beefed up.
Morey said at this time, no one has been fired from the head start over the incident.
An area representative from the Department of Human Services spoke one-on-one with four-year old Gracie and also walked into the head start facility while our news crew was there.
