MIAMI (WSVN) - A South Florida mother is furious after a private school bus dropped her son off at the wrong stop.
Tamika Robinson said her 11-year-old son Elijah Hill usually gets dropped off at around 6:30 p.m. near his home in the area of Northwest Fifth Avenue and 49th Street.
She grew worried when Hill, who attends an after-care program at Jose de Diego Middle School, didn’t make it home at the usual time on Tuesday.
Her son said he got on the bus as he does every day, but the driver didn’t go to his stop.
Instead, he was dropped off on North Miami Avenue and 60th Street, more than a mile away from his home.
“He said, ‘You might as well get off now,’ or he will keep on going up, and it’ll be a farther mile,” Hill said.
“He tossed him out on the street corner and let him fend for himself,” Robinson said.
To make matters worse, Hill said he couldn’t use his cellphone when he was left stranded.
“I checked on it and it was dead,” he said.
He started walking south, eventually making it to 54th Street, where he found his aunt sitting at a red light, already on the lookout after getting a call from his frightened mother.
“She happened to be at a stoplight and saw my son on the corner, so that was nothing but God,” Robinson said.
She called the private bus company and said they did very little to help.
“I told her, ‘So now you’re telling me my son is missing?’ she said. “She’s like ‘Yeah,’ and that was it.”
“It’s ridiculous. It’s shameful,” Robinson added. “My child could have been abducted. My child, anything could have happened to him.”
Air B School Bus Transportation Inc. released a statement regarding the issue:
“Our driver was doing his usual route, the stop assigned to the student was on his route, after passing by and dropping a few students, he continued his way. The student noticed that he missed his stop, notifying [the driver] and getting off the bus on the next stop with the rest of the students assigned. Our company will take immediate actions with the driver’s responsibilities, since his duty was returning back to the school. Each incident or situation our company follows, and [we] make each case personal to provide a safe way to each student during our transportation service.”
For Robinson, she hopes the frightening incident sheds light to other parents.
“My only thing is, I don’t want this to happen to another child,” she said.
According to Miami-Dade County Public Schools, protocol is for the driver to drop off a student back at the school if they miss their stop.
The bus driver has since been suspended pending an investigation.
Robinson said the school principal followed the bus this evening to ensure the kids were dropped off at their proper stop.
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