As you wave goodbye to your children on their way to school, you hope and pray the adults tasked with caring for them will do the best to protect them both physically and emotionally. Sadly, for one first grader in Stonecrest, Georgia, her bus driver failed to do that on both counts. On May 12, 2025, Kaylani Davis’ bus driver dragged her off the bus, half a mile from her home.
The 6-year-old was forced to walk in the rain before another adult came to her rescue. Now, her mother is trying to get to the bottom of what happened.
‘I do need answers,’ Kaylani’s mother said.
Once the driver removed Kaylani from the bus, she was left walking alone in an unfamiliar area, 11 Alive reported. The Flat Rock Elementary School student crossed a busy street in a rainstorm before a Good Samaritan heard the child’s cries for help and decided to intervene.
Kaylani’s mother, Alicia McClendon, was troubled to learn that her daughter was in the care of a stranger after she had been found alone. “I’m more relieved that my baby made it home to me, but I do need answers,” McClendon told 11 Alive.
Kaylani explained what happened from her perspective, recounting her interaction with the bus driver. “She said, ‘You know what, I’m sick and tired of you,’ and then she grabbed me and dragged me off the bus,” she recalled.
McClendon believes the driver could have chosen differently. When Kaylani cried out for help, thankfully, Iasha Parker had just stepped outside to check her mail.
“She said the bus driver threw me off the bus and I said, ‘hold on – she did what?’” Parker recalled. “I said, ‘You wanna see your momma?’ She said yeah. She calmed down, but she’s a child. When she saw her momma she started crying, and I started crying too.”
Someone told the driver not to leave the child.
After McClendon thanked Parker for protecting her child, she made her way to Flat Rock to see what had happened. The mother learned that the bus driver failed to tell anyone that Kaylani was missing, per 11 Alive. Later, the school arranged for a meeting between McClendon, school resource officers, the bus driver, and the principal.
During the meeting, McClendon learned that someone told the driver not to let Kaylani off the bus because it would be abandonment. Another bus was supposed to come to pick her up but never came.
The police are also investigating.
“She deserves to be behind bars. Fired. Terminated. She needs more because it could’ve been her life,” McClendon told the news outlet. “I trusted you all with her care. I cannot push that under the rug. I can’t and I won’t.”
At this point, administrators have placed the driver on administrative leave, the Atlanta Black Star reported. The DeKalb County Police Department has launched its own criminal investigation. It’s still not clear what Kaylani said to set off the bus driver.
For now, McClendon drives Kaylani to school in the mornings. “She’s very traumatized,” the mother told 11 Alive. “It’s really shocking to us.”
