A Fayetteville school put a first-grader on a bus to go home instead of having him wait in the parent pick-up area. | Unsplash
A Fayetteville school put a first-grader on a bus to go home instead of having him wait in the parent pick-up area. | Unsplash
A mother of a 6-year-old was justifiably distraught after going to pick her child up from a Fayetteville school and learning that the boy had been places on a bus instead of being directed to the area where parents pick up their children.
"I don't know how many times this has happened to any other child,” Tracy Williamson told WTVD. “I don’t want this to happen to nobody else after today.” https://abc11.com/first-day-of-school-cumberland-county-schools-child-put-on-bus-mixup/12179158/
Although she waited at the school for him to come back, somehow he ended up at home, where he couldn’t get in because no one was home.
"He was knocking on the door and nobody was home,” Williamson said. “Of course, my neighbor found him outside the door crying because nobody was home to get him."
The principal apologized and tried to reach out to the bus driver, who wasn’t able to answer the call because the driver was in transit.
"I sat at that school for two hours unbeknownst to me because the driver allowed my 6-year-old to get off the bus by himself with no parents, nobody was there to get him,” Williamson said.
Cumberland County Schools says the district remains committed to getting children home safely.
"Our top priority is the safety of our students. While we regret this situation happened, we are grateful that the student is safe,” the district said in a release.
It also promised an inquiry to help find out how the mistake happened and to prevent such incidents again.
"Our Transportation Department works with our school personnel to safely transport approximately 26,000 students to and from our schools on a daily basis,” the district said. “We will use this as a learning experience as we continue to improve our transportation services."
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