Background: A Sylvan Learning Center in Brookfield, Wisc. (Google Maps). Inset: Flor Escalante (Waukesha County Sheriff”s Department).

The unsettling event took place on November 8, 2024, when Escalante was driving her son to a Sylvan Learning Center in Brookfield, according to previous reports by Law&Crime. During the drive, tensions flared about the boy’s grades, prompting Escalante to pull over on the I-94 highway. She instructed her son to exit the vehicle and walk the remaining distance to the center. The boy was left about two miles away from his destination, inadequately dressed for the 50-degree Fahrenheit weather.

Concerns grew as traffic surged along the interstate, where vehicles typically reach speeds of 70 miles per hour, and several motorists dialed 911 upon witnessing “a 10- or 12-year-old on the shoulder crying” who seemed unable to recall his parents’ names. Law enforcement eventually located the boy and safely escorted him to the learning center, where his mother was waiting.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Escalante was driving her son to a Sylvan Learning Center in Brookfield on Nov. 8, 2024. The mother and son got into an argument about his grades before she pulled her vehicle over to the side of the I-94 highway and told the boy to get out and walk the rest of the way. The boy had been dropped off about two miles from the learning center while the air temperature was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit — weather he was not dressed for at the time.

Traffic was also heavy while the boy was steps away from the interstate highway, where vehicles can hit speeds around 70 miles per hour. Several drivers called 911 to report sightings of “a 10- or 12-year-old on the shoulder crying” who “doesn’t know his mom or dad’s name.” Police finally got to the boy and brought him to the learning center where Escalante was waiting.

Escalante told police that her son “didn’t appreciate everything [she] did for him,” and that she made him walk the final two miles “so he can understand what labor is.” She said she turned her car around to retrieve her son, but she could not find him, so she went to the learning center to meet him there. Escalante said she “just assumed that officers would bring him back to her.”