It’s the second time in less than a month that a child has been left alone on a school bus in the Capital Region, and officials with the bus company have confirmed the bus driver at the centre of the case has been fired.
Officials with Edmonton Catholic Schools confirmed Friday that a Grade 2 student, who attends Father Leo Green Elementary, fell asleep on the school bus while he was on the way home last week.
CTV News has learned the boy woke up alone in the Golden Arrow School Bus yard.
“It just shows why we have protocols in place, because this is an example of how the bus driver was supposed to go to the back of the bus as soon as all of the children had been dropped off,” Lori Nagy with Edmonton Catholic Schools said. “The bus driver failed to do that.”
Edmonton Catholic Schools said the father of the boy called the school when his son wasn’t dropped off at home.
CTV News tried to contact the family for comment, but they declined an interview.
“The father was understandably upset when his son didn’t come home,” Nagy said. “Then, of course, the principal and the transportation department looked into it very quickly.”
In the end, the child was alone for a few minutes.
Golden Arrow General Manager Thomas McGratton released a statement in the wake of the incident:
“Golden Arrow truly regrets the issues surrounding November 7, 2013 where a student was left unsupervised on a school bus. Golden Arrow takes the matter of student safety very seriously and has reinforced with all drivers the importance of checking their buses before they exit them. In this instance, the driver did not follow processes and the driver has been released from their duties.”
After the boy was found, officials said he managed to get off the bus because he had seen how the bus driver had opened the door – he was found in the bus yard by another bus driver a short time later.
With files from Ashley Molnar
