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Philadelphia School District Probing How Kindergarten Girl Was Given to Unknown Woman

By Mike DeNardo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The School District of Philadelphia says it is investigating the breakdown in procedures that allowed a five-year-old girl to be taken from the school yesterday.

The school district admits a number of things went wrong, allowing the girl to be taken from her kindergarten classroom (see related story).

District policy calls for anyone signing out a student to go to the main office, with identification, where their name should be matched with a list of approved individuals.

In this case, district spokemsan Fernando Gallard says, the woman in Muslim garb was able to sign in at a desk in the hallway and walk directly to the child's classroom, where a substitute teacher allowed the woman to take the child.

"Definitely procedures were not followed," Gallard told KYW Newsradio this morning.  "Definitely an adult should not be allowed to go directly to a classroom and ask for a child to be released."

Gallard says the substitute teacher is not working while the district investigates.   And Gallard says the district will be reinforcing proper procedures, to staff and to parents.

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