Posted on 04/23/2005 10:12:32 AM PDT by bvw
EWING -- In an egregious error, a 4-year-old pre-schooler was left alone inside a school bus in a parking lot for two hours as his parents frantically scoured the area trying to locate him.
The boy, who attends Antheil Elementary School on Ewingville Road, got on a Rick Bus Co. bus after school ended at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
His parents sat on the porch of their Parkway Avenue home as they do every day, waiting for the tot’s bus to drop him off.
But by 4 p.m., the bus still hadn’t arrived, and his parents began to worry. They called Lawrence-based Rick Bus Co. to inquire if the bus was late or had been in an accident, and the company allegedly told the couple they would call back.
Another 30 minutes went by with no response, so the boy’s father, Desmond, called Ewing police.
"They sent a unit out to my house, and my wife went out to the Department of Transportation and my sister-in-law went to the school looking for the bus," Desmond said.
After a search at several locations, Ewing police finally found the boy at around 6 p.m. -- alone and fast asleep in a car seat on the shuttered bus, parked in the company’s bus lot on the 600 block of Pear Avenue in Lawrence.
"He was found unharmed and unfazed," said Ewing police Sgt. Greg Smith.
The incident was a shocking oversight by the bus driver and an adult bus aide, identified by Ewing police, respectively, as Mike Odige, 35, of Hamilton, and Valarie Reed, 34, of Trenton.
The rest of the students on the bus were apparently dropped off without incident, but Odige and Reed allegedly failed to make the required check of the bus for children when they finished the route.
"Common sense tells you to check the bus before you get off," Desmond said last night, still shaken a day after the ordeal. "I hold the bus company responsible. You have a bus aide and bus driver and that’s their job, to make sure kids get off safely."
A manager at Rick Bus Co. yesterday said both Odige and Reed were fired for neglecting to check the bus and leaving the child vulnerable.
"I will say there is a procedure they did not follow," said the manager, who declined to be identified. "Both the driver and the aide have been terminated. The aide is there to help the children on board."
The company did not specify what procedures it has in place to prevent such problems, but most bus companies have policies that require its employees to thoroughly check the vehicle for school kids who didn’t get off at their stop or who fall asleep.
Rick Bus Co. also had no comment on any planned review or changes to its procedure.
In addition, both Odige and Reed were charged with child endangerment by Ewing police, Smith said.
The boy’s family said it still couldn’t fathom how it happened.
"I was very happy to find my son was OK," Desmond said. "But we’re still very upset because they were so careless. If we weren’t waiting there on the porch, nobody would have even known he was missing. Who knows how long he could have been alone on that bus?"
"We thank God our son is .K, but it doesn’t excuse the anguish we went through," he said.
Ewing school officials also placed the blame on Rick Bus Co., saying they entrust their transportation providers to get children home.
"We’re doing everything we can do," said Antheil principal Joan Zuckerman. "Several teachers and secretaries were back here (Thursday) night, and I was back at the school until this was resolved because we are all concerned."
"The people on the bus are responsible for getting the children off. We are most concerned about this," Zuckerman said. "This just can’t happen to any child, let alone a child who is so young."
The boy’s family said Ewing School District Superintendent Ray Broach called to express his sympathy and said the district was working to make sure the incident is not repeated.
"We’re very upset and angry," Desmond said. "When you send your child off to school, you expect them to be returned safely."
Why is a 4-year-old going to an all-day public school program . . . and by bus, no less???
These parents must have had a few very frightening hours. Thank God the child was ok.
So what was the driver and the aide doing on that bus? Goodness!
How scary for the parents. So glad it worked out okay!
Parents fault completely. Four years-old is way too
young for a child to be riding alone to school
on a bus. In fact, four years-old is too young
for school period. And I'm talking about
so-called "pre-school." That's just another
term for "day-care" at the taxpayers expense.
Yes, I agree in most cases -- the kid appears to have been in an infant child seat, no less. Still, the response of the school district, the police and the bus company to the situation was good.
How is it the parent's fault?! It's the bus druver and bus aids fault. God, people here are starting to sound more and more like liberals everyday- blaming something and someone else!
Let's give credit where credit is due! Have you ever left your child with a babysitter!
Long into the night if he'd had working parents. Or worse yet, he would have wandered off once his nap was over. I don't understand why a 4-year-old is on a school bus to begin with.
Our children all attended a pre-school and pre-kindergarten program through a local school. They rode a small bus, about 25 passengers, and they had an aide. Most of the pre-schoolers were 3 to 4 years old and the pre-kindergartners were 4 to 5 years old.
Seems to me that the right people were punished.
Every pre-school I have ever seen is much more than just "day-care." What's your beef?
But by 4 p.m., the bus still hadn’t arrived,
---
Why didn't the bus still drive their normal route?
Just because the boy was asleep wouldn't make you alter your route, would it?
It's commendable how everyone involved worked together to resolve the problem.
All day four and five year kindergarten is a great boon to teachers, their unions, and the taxing ability of a school district.
Oh, and it's free babysitting for parents.
The benefits for the child? Hey, that's really not the important thing here!
It may not be an all day program. Kindergarten programs will often have 1/2 days, morning and afternoon sessions. He may have been in the afternoon session.
4 would be preschool, I think, not kindergarten.
susie
Is it me? Or have there been a large number of stories coming out about children being left on buses?
I think NJ needs to overhaul it's bus system immediately.
I think I posted at our locale last year about children getting STDs on the buses.
Last year, first day of school my oldest insisted, she wanted to take the bus with her friends. I caved and let her.
I showed up to meet the bus after school.
I waited...
I waited...
I waited...
I waited...
I started calling the school, bus company, Board of Ed that contracts the bus...
2 and a half hours later, the driver pulls up to me at a corner while I was frantically combing the streets for a sign of the bus (I wasn't at the bus stop do NOTE) and asked me, as a stranger, if I knew where any of these kids lived.
To this day, this bus driver doesn't know how fortunate she is that I had my son in my arms. That saved her life.
Turns out the driver didn't have her bus route and was just taking directions from the clowns on the bus who were enjoying giving her wrong directions.
This was 2 and a half hours after the bus was due and my daughter was the first off the bus.
She never rode the bus again.
No one called to apologize to me.
No one at all reached out to me for this.
Since it does not say I wonder if the child is in head start.
My children aren't in head start. My child that had the bus incident was 8 at the time this happened.
And you are right, the article didn't say if the 4y.o boy was in head start.
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