Aurelia is 7 years old. After recess, she and a friend were playing with a gate at Village Elementary before it closed on her, locking her out.
Unsure what to do, she decided to try to walk home, but home was seven miles away in North Park.
“It's unreachable walking because we have to go over the bridge every day,” her mom, Veronica Lawrence, said. “So, she would have never got home.”
All the while, Village Elementary staff was looking for her everywhere.
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“Over the P.A. they were blasting, looking for Aurelia,” Lawrence said. “The kids here are traumatized. They're saying, ‘Mommy, is this going to happen to me?’ ”
After walking for 45-50 minutes, Aurelia ended up next to some bushes right before the Coronado Bridge.
Lawrence knows this because Aurelia was wearing an Apple tag, which her mother used it to locate her daughter and notify police about her whereabouts. She was safe.
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“She had angels with her,” Lawrence said. “I think it was the culmination of her being just an exceptional child, but also that she had that instinct. And I think there was something greater that kept her safe and kept her in that direction and didn't lead her astray.”
In the aftermath, Lawrence is seething about how this could’ve happened again.
“There was a kindergartner that went missing earlier this year — 5-year-old — and that kid, thank God, was found safely at their house as well,” Lawrence said. “But, you know, we're just getting lucky in these instances. We had two plane crashes. Luckily, no one was killed, right? But they crashed the plane twice, and we haven't even been in school two months. This is unacceptable.”
NBC 7 has repeatedly reached out to the district for information about the first student that went missing.
The district’s response didn’t address that, but said:
"The safety of all Coronado Unified School District students is our highest priority. On Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, a second-grade student at Village Elementary School separated from her class and left campus through an emergency egress gate. Fortunately, the student was located by Coronado Police officers and returned safely to campus.
"This breach in our security is something that we take very seriously. After a full incident report, our team has updated the missing-child protocols in our Emergency Response Plan and installed alarms on all push gates as well as signage noting that the gates are emergency exits.
"We acknowledge the fear and anxiety this incident has caused and regret that it happened. We want to assure our school community that we will continue to examine and strengthen elements of our safety, security and emergency operations."
