AUMSVILLE, Ore. (KPTV/Gray News) – A 2-year-old girl was left on a bus in Oregon for several hours Monday by her day care providers, and her mother wants someone to be held accountable.
The Family Building Blocks day care bus picked up Cassandra Robinson’s daughter as normal, but she got a call from the center around the time the bus was supposed to bring the girl home.
“Initially you are thinking, ‘Did she fall down?’ Or something innocuous but normal, ‘Was she bickering with another child?’ Something like that,” Robinson said.
But instead, the teacher said her daughter was left alone on the bus all day.
“I said, ‘I’m trying to process this information, because what do you mean?’ It takes me a minute, and I asked how long was she on the bus, and she said, ‘The whole class period.’ And I was like ‘What do you mean?’” Robinson said.
Robinson was told her daughter was on the bus for three hours in 36-degree temperatures and buckled into a car seat without her coat or shoes, and she had soiled her diaper.
Angry and worried, Robinson rushed over to the day care and said her daughter was not acting like herself.
“She was very quiet, she didn’t run up to hug me, which is normal for her. She just sat there and looked at me,” Robinson said.
Days later, even the way her daughter plays at home has changed.
“Normally, when she plays, she plays by herself, but now if I’m not in the room she will say, ‘Come sit with me, come sit next to me.’ Or if I’m on the couch already she will bring her toys to me,” Robinson said.
The Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care said in a statement that the Aumsville day care self-reported the incident and the department is in the process of issuing a citation for non-compliance with rules on supervision and vehicle safety.
“There has been a series of apologies about what had happened, everyone is very apologetic,” Robinson said. “That’s nice, but it doesn’t change anything that they let happen.”
Robinson said her daughter will not return to the day care, and she’s happy her daughter made it home alive.
“It could have been so much worse, so much worse,” Robinson said. “Children die in cars all the time! This is not OK! I’m so thankful that conditions were right enough that she was unharmed, but it could have gone any other way.”
She does not want this to happen to anyone else’s child.
“All of them didn’t do their job. It wasn’t just the bus driver. Everyone is liable, everyone is responsible, everyone needs to take accountability, all of them,” Robinson said.
Multiple agencies are investigating this case of neglect, including the Aumsville Police Department and the Oregon State Department of Human Services the Office of Training Investigations and Safety.
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