Mother removes son from Charleston Co. school district after unauthorized pickup

CHARLESTON COUNTY, SC (WCSC) – A Charleston County family withdrew their child from Ladson Elementary School after an incident they say left them feeling unsafe.

Ashley and Trevor Snyder say the school left their son with someone they weren’t supposed to.

The Snyders claim they gave the school a temporary restraining order against the child’s biological father at the start of the school year.

Ashley shares custody of her son with her ex-husband who lives out of state and says she got a restraining order when her son told her he was being abused in June.

Ashley says she received a Facetime call on Aug. 27 in the middle of the school day and answered it to see her 10-year-old crying saying his dad had picked him up from school.

She said she called 911 and rushed to the school. Her son and her ex-husband were still in the parking lot because her son refused to leave with him.

“This whole thing could have been avoided,” Ashley Snyder said.

An incident report from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office states that once all parties arrived at the school, it was determined that the child “was not currently believed to be with his biological father” .

“While we were terrified on the way to school, it’s probably a 10 minute drive, we were definitely going over the speed limit to get there, and on his {Trevor} phone we were calling the police, and on my phone , the school was calling us,” said Ashey Snyder. I immediately got to the school and said, ‘Someone is trying to pick up my son and take him and he’s not allowed.’ and they put me on hold. We stayed on hold until we got to school.

“Ultimately, this child was removed from a school that we had entrusted with care into a safe environment,” Trevor Snyder said.

Ashley is upset that her son was exposed to things that children shouldn’t have to worry about.

“He had no idea we were facing such a significant custody issue because he didn’t need to know about it, he just needed to be aware that we were doing what we could to protect him ” said Ashley Snyder. “He didn’t need to know that his father had flown across the country to take him.”

The district said: The Charleston County School District has protocols in place that dictate how students are released to authorized family members, guardians and custodians. This issue has been thoroughly investigated and resolved. We can confirm that the staff member involved in this situation no longer works for the district.

Live 5 specifically asked the district if it could confirm that the school had this restraining order on file and if this child was released from school by his father. The above statement was all that was provided to us, leaving these questions unanswered.

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