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Sick Yonkers Student Walks Home From School After Miscommunication

YONKERS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – Conventional wisdom tells us children don't understand sarcasm, irony or metaphors; kids tend to take things literally.

Well, that turned out to be a big problem for one local school recently when 7-year-old Jeremy Melendez complained of a stomach ache.

As CBS 2's Lou Young reported, a nurse at Martin Luther King Elementary School in Yonkers sent him back to his classroom to "get his backpack because he was going home."

"I thought my teacher said to go home," Melendez said.

Melendez said no one stopped him and when asked if it was easy, he shook his head yes.

Jeremy Melendez, Yonkers student who walked home from school
Jeremy Melendez, 7, walked home from school after a miscommunication with the school nurse. (Credit: Lou Young/CBS 2)

No one said specifically told the boy to sit and wait for his mother, because as Young reported, he probably would have done that.

Melendez then walked across busy North Broadway to his family's apartment, arriving at his own doorstep as the school was calling his mother to come pick him up.

"The bottom line is the school is not safe," his mother, Valerie Perez, said. "Nobody was watching the doors. He just left, he got home. At least he made it home."

Yonkers School Superintendent Dr. Michael Yazurlo has ordered a security review of the school, with an eye toward installing alarms on the exterior doors.

"This is a wake-up call," Yazurlo said.

Meanwhile, the boy's mother has been told her son can't go outside for recess because he is a "security risk."

Hearing that didn't make the superintendent very happy, Young reported.

"All children are security risks, that's why they're children. They do things to put themselves in harm's way," he said.

Jeremy's mother has been granted permission to enroll him elsewhere in the school system while his old school gets a once-over from the district's security team.

The school system says the security review will also include procedures for escorting very young children whenever they leave the classroom.

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