A New Jersey mother wants answers after her autistic son was left alone in a parked school bus for more than two hours. Chinasia McNeill's 5-year-old son, Kyrie, was supposed to be dropped off by his bus driver at his home on Monday afternoon about 2:45 p.m. When Kyrie hadn't arrived by 4 p.m., McNeill began to panic.
According to NJ.com, Kyrie is a pre-K student at School 30 in the Jersey City Public Schools district. McNeil told the Jersey Journal that her son's bus didn't get to the school until 3:40 p.m. Monday, and no one notified her that the bus was running late, per NJ.com. She went to School 30 to pick up her son, but he was not there and no one knew where he was.
Kyrie was unaccounted for for more than an hour.
After McNeill arrived at the school and realized that Kyrie wasn't there, school officials began the search for the missing boy. According to her, they finally tracked down a security guard at the JR Transportation lot, the company contracted by the school district to operate buses. The guard reportedly told McNeill the lot was closed and all bus drivers and aides were gone.
Panic began to set in.
The mother and district employees searched for Kyrie for more than an hour and 20 minutes. McNeill admitted her thoughts were scary.
"I was shaking, I was scared," she told the Jersey Journal, per NJ.com. "I thought the bus driver has taken my son and ran off with him. I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to find my son again. An hour seems like forever. My mind was racing, I didn't know what to think."
A security officer finally found Kyrie asleep on a bus. His mother was relieved but then enraged. She said he was, "screaming, crying, shivering, just screaming for me, saying 'I want to go home!'"
JR Transportation has fired the employees who were on Kyrie's bus.
The school district reported that two JR Transportation employees are responsible for sweeping the buses to ensure no children are left behind, according to NJ.com. The driver and the aide allegedly did not do their jobs properly, and the bus company has fired both.
The news outlet reported that the company — one of several transportation services contracted by Jersey City Public Schools — is being paid more than $4.7 million this year to cover 59 bus routes.
Kyrie now refuses to get on a bus or to go to school.
McNeill said Kyrie is traumatized by the experience and has not returned to school since Monday. She said she is attempting to get him an appointment with a therapist to help ease his mind and to work through the trauma.
"When a bus rolled past (Wednesday) morning, he started crying 'I don't want to get on the bus! I don't want to get on the bus!' I don't think he understands the severity of it, he just knows he doesn't want to get on that bus," she told the Jersey Journal.
McNeill claims no one from the district is addressing the situation.
According to McNeill, she has received no explanation from the school district as to what happened to Kyrie, but a sign on the fence at JR Transportation reads, "Before leaving your bus check for sleeping children." McNeill claims that didn't happen, and she wants to know why.
"The school didn't give me an explanation, no one gave me an explanation," she said. Only one teacher has contacted her about what happened.
According to NJ.com, Jersey City Public Schools Superintendent Norma Fernandez said the incident is under investigation, and drivers and aides "must inspect the seats to ensure students don't fall asleep and are left behind."
There is talk of a lawsuit.
McNeill told the news outlet that she is considering a lawsuit. She doesn't understand why the bus company is not being held accountable and fears she can't trust the school district. The mom says she has put a tracker on her son so she knows where he is. He now has an Apple Air Tag with him at all times.
"I'm trying to get this company shut down because this is ridiculous," she said. "If this happened to my child, imagine how many more children it has happened to. How are (they) letting just anyone get behind the wheel of a bus that is transporting special needs kids."
