Child Gets on Wrong Bus . . . Every Parent's Nightmare?

it would be my worst nightmare until they found her.

I see your point on that . . . but frankly, something like this happened to a lot of us.

It would be terrifying . . . until the kid turned up ok. At which point . . . its a story to tell their dates when they are a teenager so you can embarass them. Its not news.

This sort of hyperbole . . . its part of what's leading to our massively overprotective society. At least in my opinion.

Honestly I think it was handled wrongly, and this is just from reading the comments here.

First and foremost, they should have called the other bus drivers to see if she was on their bus before calling the parent and telling them they don't know where the kid is.

Secondly, at the end of the day, it's not like the kid was stranded. I know protocol, they take the kid either back to their school or to their stop. It's the same thing they do when kids fall asleep on the bus.

According to Arriaza and school committee members, the girl was left with a neighbor, rather than returned to her school as spelled out in school transportation policy

About 4:30 p.m., an hour after school dismissal, Arriaza said she received a call alerting her that her child did not arrive on the bus for day care. She said she called the school but did not get an answer.

I also should have read the whole article. She didn't get on the wrong bus to no where... she got on the bus and went home instead of to the afterschool program lol when she got home no one was there, door locked... thankfully good neighbor was home and took her in and called the mother.

so yeah... that is not that big of a deal although my heart would break for my child knowing she was so frightened. Thankfully the neighbor was a good samaritan. I don't know what would happen if Hannah got home and went to the neighbor attached to us on one side... they'd probably just leave her out in the cold lol. But if that were to ever happen she would go across the street to where her babysitter lives and hope they are home.

But I would probably cry just thinking of how scared a little 5 year old would be to arrive home to find mom and dad not there

but yeah my heart would drop out of my chest when the afterschool program called saying she never made it there. It doesn't sound like they knew she got on the wrong bus or where she was at all. that would be my worst nightmare until I knew she was safe somewhere

ohh yah see, I thought it was like, her normal bus driver noticed she hadn't gotten off.

this quote above also strikes me. the policy is to take the kid back to the school.

I don't know how the bus driver was supposed to know but it is in their policy so there must be some criteria for getting a kid where they are supposed to be and it sounds like perhaps the company has been dropping the ball on adhering to their policies

See, I don't know if it was really the bus driver dropping policy. Did the child *tell* the bus driver she was on the wrong bus, and was supposed to go to daycare, not home, or did she just get off the bus?

I would say that if anything, her normal bus driver would be dropping the ball in not saying anything when one less kid didn't get off the bus at that stop -- at least here, they KNOW how many kids should be getting off at each stop.

Or, why didn't the daycare provider step up and say "hey, we are missing a kid" when the kids got off the bus? It could have easily been solved there (assuming the child hadn't already gotten off the other bus).

I also remember in kindergarten part of the teachers job was to take us out to the school buses and not just leave a bunch of 5 year olds to their own devices

If this is the true sequence of events



and it was an hour after the child should have been on the bus (and conversely would have been dropped of LONG before that hour) and they were just calling to say they didn't know where her child was... what parent would be "oh ho hum I'm sure my kid is somewhere" so the mother didn't KNOW if her kid was stranded somewhere or not. s he has no idea WHERE she was, no idea if she just got on the wrong bus, what bus, going where, where was the child, alone and scared, hurt, who knows.

Panic sets in when someone calls and says your child isn't where they are supposed to be and doesn't know where they are.

I don't know, it seems like it wasn't particularly all on the bus driver that dropped her off, this time. It seems like everybody was in the wrong (except the kid and her mother). The school, the daycare providers, both bus drivers, etc.

ETA: I still can't open the article :rofl1:

ATTLEBORO -- The mother of a kindergarten pupil who was dropped off with a neighbor by a school bus driver instead of her scheduled after-school day care said she was "petrified" when she received a call from the day care center asking about her daughter's whereabouts.

Desiree Arriaza, mother of the 6-year-old girl, is scheduled to meet with Superintendent Pia Durkin today to discuss the incident and follow-up actions.

"This is unacceptable," Arriaza said.

She said her daughter, Adriana,arrived home on the school bus March 5 and burst into tears when she realized neither her parents nor grandmother were there to meet her.

According to Arriaza and school committee members, the girl was left with a neighbor, rather than returned to her school as spelled out in school transportation policy.

Durkin said she shares the parent's anxiety, and said she was "appalled" when she was informed of the incident.

The school district has taken action with school employees, along with preventative measures, including holding a policy review for school bus drivers Wednesday at which drivers were told to sign off on prescribed bus procedures, Durkin said.

She said the bus company, H&L Bloom, has also taken action with its employees who were involved.

The superintendent said the bus policy will also be reviewed at a future meeting of the school board's policy subcommittee.

Durkin was not specific as to what, if any, disciplinary measures were taken.

Arriaza said she contacted her daughter's school, Studley Elementary, three times, including sending a note to inform the school that her daughter was starting a before-and-after-school care program beginning March 5 at Markman Day Care Center and would be riding a bus to and from the center, rather than home.

On the first day she was scheduled to attend, the girl took the bus from day care to the school. But when school was dismissed, she boarded a regular school bus bound for her home on lower County Street.

Neither Arriaza, who works in Boston, nor other members of her family were home at the time because they expected the child was being delivered to day care.

About 4:30 p.m., an hour after school dismissal, Arriaza said she received a call alerting her that her child did not arrive on the bus for day care. She said she called the school but did not get an answer.

Several minutes later, Arriaza said, she received a cell phone call from her neighbor, who she knows only casually, stating that she had her daughter.

The child's grandmother was notified and came to stay with the girl, who was unharmed, until her mother arrived home.

Arriaza said school officials were well informed before the fact and bear part of the responsibility for the mixup. However, she said her daughter is embarrassed and is blaming herself for the hubub.

"Responsibility means one thing when you're dealing with adults," she said. "But we can't expect of 6-year-olds the same things we expect of adults."

Ohh it's not even like she had been getting dropped off there the whole time, it was a new thing.

Yah, here, you get dropped off at a bus stop, and your parents don't even have to be there to pick you up.

just makes me wonder ... is there no one at the school that helps 5 year olds get on the right bus? i know my kindergarten teacher did. We lined up and we went out to the buses together. 5 year olds weren't expected to find their own way... they are 5 year olds, they dawdle, get distracted, get lost...

We got passes to show the bus driver for the first few weeks, that basically just said the bus number (1, 2 or 3) and the buses were in order lined up, it was pretty fool proof

ETA: That's in like grade 6, before that I went to a school across the street so I obviously didn't take a bus

Getting on the wrong school bus happened to me three years in a row. In kindergarten, grade one and grade two. It was terrifying when it happened; but I got over it like right away because my parents didn't make a big deal about it in front of me. It's not something to make it to the papers though. People today. >,<

I think its probably the unknown that was the nightmare, not knowing what was happening.