Unattended Children at the Library

Late one afternoon last week, a mother dropped off her 10-year old child at the Library while she went to an exercise class downtown. Library policy states that no child under 8 may be left unattended, so the mom was well within our rules in leaving her son in the Children's Room unaccompanied. Unfortunately, she did not realize the Library closes at 5:30pm on Thursdays. We were left with a conundrum: no way to reach the mother (her cell phone was off), and a Library that was closing. Luckily the child was able to reach his older sister for a ride home, but the staff stayed on the premises with the child until she arrived. It's not the first time something like this has happened. I came across a sign in another blog which could offer a possible solution.