Oct 3, 2008 8:09 pm US/Eastern
Autistic Boy Apparently Left On School Bus All Day
YONKERS, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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The mother of an autistic boy is angry and demanding answers from the Yonkers School District after her son was apparently left alone on a school bus, strapped into his seat for an entire school day. (File)
CBS
The mother of an autistic boy is angry and demanding answers from the Yonkers School District after her son was apparently left alone on a school bus, strapped into his seat for an entire school day.
Sofy Abraham, the boy's mother, wants to know how the incident could have possibly happened.
"No child, no child should have to go through this," says Abraham. "[It's] a parent's nightmare, that's what we have, a parent's nightmare."
Abraham says on Monday, her 6-year-old son was left on the All Ways East school bus for six hours. She rushed to PS-29 to check on her son when she learned what happened.
"He looked shocked, like was crying. He didn't eat anything. What I sent – his sandwich, his drink – nothing was touched. Everything, it was in the bag," she says.
The school says the boy was absent all day and the only explanation is that he was left on the bus. But a source tells CBS 2 the driver and bus monitor insist the boy got off the short-model bus at school in the morning. The driver then returned to the depot. It's not known if the depot supervisor followed routine and checked the bus for students, however.
The source says hours later - the driver came back to PS-29, went inside to use the bathroom, came back out to her bus, and was shocked to see the boy buckled into his regular seat in the very first row.
Abraham can't believe her son wandered away from school all day, only to return to the bus shortly before dismissal. And she trusts the bus monitor, the same one her son had last year.
"She's a very sweet lady, very kind to him," she says.
The bus driver and monitor have been suspended while Yonkers police try to piece together just what happened and why.
Late Friday, Yonkers school officials released a statement saying: "Most importantly, the child is safe, the district contacted police and requested a full investigation of this matter."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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