HOXIE, Kan. (KWCH/Gray News) – A family in Kansas is left searching for answers after a 5-year-old boy was left on his school bus alone for several hours.
The Hoxie School District confirmed the incident happened on Oct. 28.
Although a few weeks have passed, Leta Meitl, the 5-year-old’s grandmother, still has unanswered questions.
Meitl said her grandson, who is in kindergarten, boarded the bus that morning and fell asleep during the ride. The bus driver, unaware that the child did not get off the bus, drove home after completing the route.
“How could that happen?” Meitl said. “You count three [kids] getting off the bus. You count three getting on the bus. It’s not rocket science.”
The kindergartner woke up hours later in the bus driver’s driveway.
Meitl said she cried over the situation.
“I just kept wondering what was going on in his little mind,” she said.
Six hours later, the bus driver discovered the boy was still on the bus.
Meitl said she was relieved that the weather was mild that day. She worried that her grandson could’ve suffered heat exhaustion or froze, had the temperatures been extreme.
She said bus drivers should always check their buses at the end of the day and the end of their shifts.
“It takes less than 10 seconds to walk to the back and back to the front of the bus,” Meitl said.
In a statement released to KWCH on Thursday, the Hoxie School District confirmed that the bus driver is no longer employed with the district.
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