Child Left On Broward School Bus For Hours
PEMBROKE PINES (CBS4) - A Dania Beach kindergarten student was found on his school bus hours after he was supposedly dropped off at school.
According to Broward County Public Schools spokeswoman Marsy Smith the 6-year-old child, Aiden, was picked up around 7:15 a.m. in Hollywood and then driven to Dania Elementary located at 300 Southeast 2nd Avenue.
After dropping the children off, the bus drive drove to a county bus depot at 900 South University Drive in Pembroke Pines.
Pembroke Pines police spokesman Sgt. Carlos Bermudez said the child apparently fell asleep on the bus and went unnoticed for hours.
When the driver returned just after 1 p.m. to get ready for the afternoon route, the child was found on the bus. The driver notified district officials who alerted the authorities and child's parents. The boy was checked out by Pembroke Pines paramedics before being released to his mother; he was fine.
Sofia told CBS4's Tiffani Helberg that Aiden is autistic, which made the situation that much more critical.
"I want to get him to the doctor so we can make sure he's fine and just get some rest at this point," the boy's mother Sofia said. "It's just really annoyance at this point. I've gone from the distraught, to where it is really annoying people are so incompetent."
Smith said the district's policy is for the driver and the bus aid to check out their vehicle to make sure everyone has gotten off the bus before it proceeds to the depot.
The incident is under investigation and Smith said it was too early to discuss what type of disciplinary action the driver could be facing.
