Tears were frozen to the face of a five-year-old kindergarten student this week, after being dropped off at the wrong bus stop in frigid -18 degree weather.
Chatham resident Erica Moore, formerly of Wallaceburg, said she and her husband are thankful their son was not hurt. However, they are furious the situation occurred in the first place and are looking at taking legal action.
“It was Tuesday of this past week. It was a regular day, we put my son on the bus to go to school. On my way home, I get a text when I am leaving work from my husband that the regular bus driver took a different route home, which they are not suppose to do, and drops my son off by himself at the corner… a good few blocks away,” Moore said.
“He was told to get off the bus, that this is his stop. He can’t even reach the stairs to get on and off really all that well anyway, so he looks down to make sure he knows where he is going. He gets off, the bus driver is gone at this point, doesn’t wait for him to cross the road or anything.”
Moore said her husband was waiting for him at the bus stop where he normally should get off.
“We have signed paperwork saying that he is not to get off the bus unless he or I are there,” she said.
“So my husband is waiting for the bus, my daughter is two, so he is going in and out of the house because it is cold. He’s looking all around and he sees the bus go down a different road… so he starts going to run after the bus, like ‘where is my son, where is my son.’ The bus driver slows down and then takes off again. So he is losing his mind at this time, he calls the principal of the school to see if he was put on the bus, to see if he is missing, to see if he got on the bus.”
“He was about to call the police. He was obviously in a panic, we couldn’t find my son. He was outside trying to look around, he doesn’t know if he should go run the streets looking for him or what, because the principal said he had gotten on the bus. We had bought him a bright green snow suit… so then he sees this bright green blob coming down the road with another kid.”
Moore said it had to of been 10 or 15 minutes from the time her son was dropped off from the bus, until the time a neighbourhood girl walked him back home.
“My son was in hysterics, he’s got tears frozen to his face because it was so cold out,” Moore said. “There must have been guardian angels everywhere because it could have been so horrible.”
Moore said a young girl, who lives down the road from them, gets on and off at the same bus stop as her son.
“As the bus drives by him, she sees him and realizes he shouldn’t be getting off here,” Moore said. “When the bus stops, she got off and went back to look for him.”
Moore said at the same time, a total stranger had stopped for him as well.
“Luckily, she is a good person,” Moore said. “She saw two kids get off the bus, my son and another boy, she saw him and could tell he knew he was lost. Instantly she could tell he was in distress… he was bawling, he couldn’t see where he was going. He was trying to make it over snow hills, he was wandering down towards McNaughton Ave., going onto the road, because he can’t see where he is going he is crying so hard.”
Moore said the woman decided to stop, and not take a chance.
“She flags down another bus and says this child is lost, he’s not suppose to be let off here, there is no one here to get him, call this in,” Moore said. “She listens to that bus driver, dispatch in saying we have a child who is lost, dropped somewhere he shouldn’t be, there is no one here to get him. She looked around and saw the little girl come get him, she could tell he knew her, this girl is a little bit taller, so she thought this was the guardian for him… he grabbed her hand right away.”
Moore said she called the bus company and school board to follow up and see what would be done.
“The school bus company got back to me… said they have the GPS, they ran the video from the bus, they see he went off-route the entire time,” Moore said. “They see him tell him to get off the bus at a stop where it is not his.”
“I have a message saved from the bus company. She said that they have no excuse, there is no reason, she can’t give me an answer, she’s incredibly sorry and mortified. There is nothing else she can say but the driver has been reprimanded. They called me back the next morning and said because he is a union worker, he has been advised not to do that again. That he has been brought in and talked to. I find that completely unacceptable.”
Moore said the police told her she has limited options.
“The police told us if it was me, or my husband or a grandparent or a baby sitter that had dropped him off on the side of the road there and left him, we would be in jail… it’s illegal, it abandonment, it’s neglect, it’s endangerment,” she said. “But because he is a bus driver I would have to talk to his supervisor or get an attorney if I wanted to get any resolve or policy change.”
Moore said this should have never happened in the first place.
“They dropped him off, lost and alone on a street corner, minus 18 degrees out,” she said. “If it hadn’t of been for those two people, I can’t even think what could of happened. Look at that poor little guy in Toronto, and there was a grown man that tripped and fell in a snow bank, got covered in snow and died.”
Moore added: “He’s still allowed to drive the bus… because my son is alright, I wouldn’t want to see him go to jail, but there needs to be policy in place where if you are responsible for children, if you are responsible for minor children, and there is a policy with the bus company that he is not allowed to be dropped off with anyone but myself or my husband, if you break that policy and endanger a child, you can be held criminally responsible. That is what I was trying to go over with the bus company.”
Moore said she wants other parents to be aware of their story.
“We want to get the word out to other parents that this has happened, it never should have happened, but all they can say is sorry,” she said. “Someone needs to be held accountable and there needs to be process in place, where if you are a school bus driver responsible for a child you can be held criminally responsible if you neglect their safety. I’m going to try and initiate some kind of legal policy. We’re doing some research into different options to try and institute some change.”
She said until the situation is sorted out, her son won’t be going back on the bus.
“He has asked to go back on the bus with his friends,” she said. “The other night he woke up three times crying with nightmares saying he was lost. He doesn’t have any physical injuries, he didn’t sustain any frostbite, he didn’t get hit by a car while wandering, and he wasn’t kidnapped but it will take him some time to have a good nights sleep.”
The Sydenham Current will be following up with the Student Transportation Services of the Chatham-Kent Lambton Administrative School Services.
Watch for more on this story.
This is horrible. I cannot imagine the fear in those parents. What a joke that the bus driver has a job still. This could have had a far worse outcome. Something needs to be done to ensure this never happens again. Good for the little girl for noticing the little guy was let off at the wrong stop and scared and went back for him. What an angel she is. Let’s get this “policy” changed so it doesn’t happen again.
I agree wholeheartedly. A process to change the bus drivers lack of culpability needs to happen. Upon hearing of this totally unnecessary occurrence a multitude of horrors flashed through my mind. Things that could have happened to that frightened little boy. Things that I’m sure flashed through his parent’s mind. Were any of those to be realized, would t bus driver still just get brought in and talked to? We are entrusting our children to the bus driver’s They must be held accountable.
What callous disregard for the care and safety of a small child. I would be terrified to ever put my child on a bus again, to say nothing of how the child himself would feel. This bus driver should NOT be entrusted with the care of small children – clearly he does not care. The bus company and the union need to step up and take responsibility and reassure parents that this is not acceptable.
Same story I heard about a child in Sarnia. She was dropped off at the wrong school. It is scary. I have to tell the person who found that child to follow up
This bus driver has been criminally negligent. I do NOT care what the policy may say, what “human” with a heart at all would set a child off in these temperatures at an unsupervised, and unknown stop. This driver needs to be charged and fired from his job.
Same thing has happened to my daughter and she’s is sk thank god for the two boys who get off with her and brought her home, but the driver said the same thing this is your drop off the kids told them no and he still made them get off. I called the bus company a few times all they say is I will talk to the bus driver and we never get a call back also the school says they have nothing to do with the bus so they can’t help. Very sad to know your children are suppose to be in good hands.
This is clearly a huge issue that needs a better resolution. My boys were also dropped at the wrong stop a few months ago. Thankfully they are older, 9 & 11, but they were dropped off 2 stops past there’s and told “too bad” when they told the driver it wasn’t their stop. When I called and spoke to the supervisor, she showed honest concern. Her immideate response was “he dropped them off where? He can’t do that!”. And she explained what the proper procedure for a missed stop is. But in the end, the only thing he got was a ” talk”.
same thing happened to my daughter 20 years ago . The bus driver just dropped my daughter off at the very last bus stop instead of taking her back to the school to get her home safe and sound GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Well needless to say me the frantic mother had the school and the police out looking for my little bean and an hour and fourty minutes later we found her wondering the side roads in the neibourhood !!!!! The bus driver was no where to be found during this time , but I did tell the school board and the police that if I ever see that bus driver again he was sure to get the rath of a very very pissed off mother let me teil you . The school board assured me that he would no longer be doing my daughters route PFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT well that was just not good enough for this very very pissed off mother nope no way no how . So I made I very clear to the school bus company that if I were to ever see this fellow driving a school bus again there would be some hell to pay and they assured me that this guy was going to be let go !!!! Very angry mothers job done!!!!!!!
All in all my daughter was ok thank the good lord , but you tell me what kind of a bus driver just drops off a kid where there are not supposed to be ?????
Just think in about 6 months when he turns 6yrs old he’ll be allowed to get off totally by himself no parent needs to be there!! Really!! Even 6yrs old is not old enough to be fully responsible for yourself. They should not be allowed to get off alone till they are 7yrs old.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. When I lived in Tilbury they dropped my 4 year-old daughter (after telling her repeatedly that she is mistaken) that she was to be dropped off at my house today (after the tilbury gossip mill broke out that my babysitter had a baby that morning) and I was not home and she was locked out. My babysitter called me to say she didn’t get off the bus. So I called the bus company and they said she’s at my house. To as insult to injury, I called the Tilbury police and asked if they would send a police officer there to get her (I was just leaving school in Chatham and we teach our kids that police are safe people, right?), but the dispatcher informed me that they are not a babysitting service and sent no one as two police offers sat doing nothing at Tum Hortons). But instead, the dispatcher called the children’s aid, who came to visit the next morning. And, we just moved to that location a week before. She knew none of the neighbors except for the loud mouth alcoholic across the street. It’s been 15 years and I’m still mad about it! I never felt so foresaken by society in my life! Had Pearson done what they do every day, my babysitter and her family would have been there for my daughter. Instead I came home to a sobbing, mentally distressed 4 year old on my front porch who was afraid to rude the bus for the next 3 years. If I wasn’t a broke student at the time, I would have sued the living crap out of the bus company and the police department. Instead, I didn’t even get an apology.
Not sure what bus company this was and I think from the letter I have a pretty good Idea but had it been the company I work for I can say with pretty good certainty that the driver would not be driving bus any longer. I have read to many stories like this and as a responsible caring bus driver it sickens me. When we train bus drivers we repeat over and over and over and over again the top priority of the job is the safety of the precious cargo we carry. The kids on my bus are like my own and I couldnt live with a parent telling me that this happened on my bus. I could go on for hours about fantastic stories about bus drivers and the students they carry and the fantastic job they do each and every day. The sad reality is you never hear the good stories and it sure doesnt take to many stories like this one to badly reflect on all bus drivers. I would like to tell you I am sincerely sorry from the bottom of my heart that this ridiculous event happened to your child and please believe me when i say it should NOT of happened. in the same token please believe me when I say that these horrendous incidents are far and few between. Please dont let one drivers blatant disregard for a drivers policies and procedures to turn you against the busing industry as a whole. 99.9% of bus drivers go above and beyond to protect the safety of our precious cargo, your children. Again my sincere apologies and thank God your child is safe:))
My son is 5 and was not only put on the wrong bus at his school but a bus driver let him off ALONE is a strange neighborhood. It’s by the grace of God that another mother noticed he was alone and asked him where his parents were and she drove him back up to school. The news wanted to do a story on it. The school and the busy company were apologetic. I made the principal apologize to my son! I don’t care if he is 5, hes a human being and deserves if nothing else a huge apology for their mistakes! We didn’t know where our son was for 30 minutes, I live in St. Louis MO Thankfully it wasn’t overly cold but if had not been for that mother, he would have been a missing child. He was nowhere near our neighborhood.
I know the little girl in this situation, but she is not that little she’s 12years old. The little girl in this story is ME
As a bus Driver myself in Alberta it is against the law with the company I work for to drop off any child under Grade 2 at anytime with out a parent or assigned person,at the correct stop, which i would have a copy in my bus from the parents who is to be at the stop. If I am lazy and choose to drop off this child, with no one at the stop let alone wrong stop which is no excuse! i will be charge and fired from my job!
What school / what bus company.
This driver needs to be exposed.