Student with autism slips out of Brooklyn school, goes missing for several hours

NEW YORK — A 11-year-old boy with autism slipped out of his Brooklyn school and was missing for several hours Tuesday afternoon before being found 18 miles away, police and a local lawmaker said on social media.

The student, who is nonverbal, ran out of P.S. K369 Coy L. Cox School in Downtown Brooklyn through an emergency exit after noon, according to education officials and police. The school is part of District 75, a network of public school programs serving children with complex disabilities.

School safety reported the boy found on social media before 4:30 p.m. He was located in Malverne, Long Island, a school safety source told the New York Daily News, roughly 18 miles away from his school.

An investigation is underway that will include the question of whether the boy took the Long Island Rail Road from the nearby Atlantic Terminal, the source said.

The Department of Education said an alarm in the building sounded, but did not say whether the school will boost security measures in response to the incident. The school has two agents, at the main entrance and on patrol, school safety said.

There was no agent at the emergency exit or camera at that door, according to school safety, who said footage had to be retrieved from a neighboring building.

Door alarms were deployed in some schools after the 2013 death of Avonte Oquendo, 14, when he walked out of Riverview School in Long Island City, Queens. Oquendo’s body was found in the East River several months later.

The 11-year-old boy who went missing Tuesday was wearing a gray long-sleeve shirt and pants, but appeared not to have a coat despite the cold temperatures, according to a photo posted on social media.

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