Update:

The parents of a 7-year-old autistic child who went missing from Mamie Martin Elementary School Wednesday said he was gone for more than 10 minutes before being picked up by police.

Michael Edwards said his son Evan Edwards walked out of the school, through a gate, went down Jennifer Street to Union Street and was spotted by a motorist who called police. He continued down Union Street and employees at a business near Hwy. 51 corralled him until police arrived, he said.

“This is a 7-year-old autistic kid who doesn’t speak,” he said. “None of (what the district said about the incident) is true.”

Michael Edwards said his wife dropped the child off at school at 8 a.m. and the call to police was made at 8:20 a.m.

The child was unharmed and was back with his parents later Wednesday morning.

Original story:

An autistic student at Mamie Martin Elementary who broke away from the crowd and took off running as students were arriving Wednesday morning was safely picked up minutes later down the street.

Mamie Martin Principal Rob McCreary said the incident lasted less than two minutes. Superintendent of Education Ben Cox said the child went through the car pickup gate around 8 a.m. while people were still using the access gate to drop off students. Cox said the child took off running down Jennifer Street and got on to Union Street before police picked him up almost immediately. Cox said a student had eyes on the child as he ran and alerted an employee.

He was returned to the school and his mother was on the way to the school after the incident. Cox said while it was a quick event, he is “happy that everything’s fine and he’s safe right now.”