6-year-old student goes missing on first day of classes in Rocky Mount

Mason Wade was found after being unaccounted for for around four hours on Monday evening.

Wade’s grandmother, Nicole Jones, told WRAL News that her daughter Brianna Williams went to Baskerville Elementary School after the first day to pick up Wade and his brother.

Jones said that after waiting for around 20 minutes, a school administrator told Williams that her sons had been picked up by another family member – her aunt. But when Williams went to her aunt’s house, Wade was nowhere to be found.

The family said Williams returned to the school and was told that staff didn’t know where Wade was.

“And at that point I was just like call the police,” Jones said. “Because there is no way he could have just left from school.”

The Rocky Mount Police Department launched an investigation, and the family gathered to start a search of their own.

Around 6:30 p.m. on Monday night, Mason Wade was finally found safe.

Baskerville Elementary Principal Kimberly Newkirk told WRAL News that at the end of the school day, police found that the 6-year-old had gotten in the van to the Boys and Girls Club and was taken to their after-school program.

The boy’s grandmother said she was grateful the boy was recovered unharmed, and that the school apologized to her after the incident. However, she also felt that Baskerville needed to make changes to ensure that the same thing didn’t happen to another family in the future.

“What if he hadn’t made it there? What if, God forbid, something else under different circumstances would have happened?” Jones said. “It would be a different day today.”

The school’s principal told WRAL News that Baskerville has already started a review of their dismissal safety procedures after the incident.

“Our goal is not only for kids to be here learning, but to be here safe and learning,” Kimberly Newkirk said. “So to make sure that this never happens again, we are doing everything that we can.”