13 WTHR reported that a school bus driver could face charges after allegedly leaving a child on board for two hours all alone Russiaville, Indiana.
The elementary school student’s mother says she just wants to make sure no other family goes through what she went through Tuesday in Howard County.
When Johnson got an automated call from school telling her that her eight-year-old son was not there, “I panicked. I knew that I put him on the bus I watched him board the bus.”
Then, Tobin’s Russiaville Primary School principal found him, still on the bus. Temperatures were in the 20s.
When Tobin’s bus dropped everybody at school Tuesday morning, the boy didn’t get off. Still asleep, he rode the bus back to the school district’s bus barn.
Kids fall asleep on buses. That’s why Western Schools Corporation and others have a policy. Before the driver leaves the bus, they are to walk the aisle and check every seat.
But Western Schools says that did not happen here. The driver parked and left the bus.
The school told her when they found him, Tobin was on his seat, asleep. She said administrators told her the bus security camera showed her son “was sitting there asleep. They shut the bus off. And the bus driver just exited. She didn’t turn around. She didn’t look.”
She said she was also told, after the driver left, the video shows Tobin had woken up, kind of looked around, asked himself out loud, “Where am I?” Then began to be pretty upset. Then the video shut off.
She says the district apologized. The assistant superintendent says it will review the rules with all drivers. It’s not clear if charges will be filed.
