MILWAUKEE — A 5-year-old Milwaukee boy was left on a school bus on Monday after he fell asleep and was not found until his family tracked him down in the school bus company’s parking lot.
The kindergarten student was left on a GO Riteway school bus, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Chenequa Byers-Smith said her son was unharmed. The boy woke up and began honking the horn on the bus when family members found him in the school bus company parking lot, according to the newspaper.
“It could have ended very differently had we not thought to go up there,” Byers-Smith told the Journal Sentinel.
According to the Milwaukee Police Department, officers received a call from Byers-Smith, WISN-TV reported. She told police that her son did not come home from the Milwaukee Academy of Science school on the bus at 5 p.m. CST, and that she was having difficulty contacting anyone at the school or the bus company, according to the television station.
The boy’s father went to the school bus company parking lot and found him, scared and crying but unharmed, WISN reported.
Byers-Smith said she called police at 6 p.m. CST and asked them to search the school bus lot, the Journal Sentinel reported. Police said they needed to search her house to gather more information, so she posted her son’s photograph on social media and said the boy was missing.
Byers-Smith’s mother and two brothers traveled to the GO Riteway lot, and the boy’s father also went there. At about 7:45 p.m., the group heard the child honking the horn in the lot and the boy managed to turn on the bus’ inside lights, according to the newspaper.
The men jumped the barbed-wire fence and located the boy.
“He was very cold and tired,” Byers-Smith said. “He was finally relieved that somebody knew where he was.”
In a statement, GO Riteway said an employee failed to follow safety protocols at the end of a shift, the Journal Sentinel reported. The employee was fired, the company said.
“Yesterday evening, one of our employees did not follow well-established company safety protocols at the end of their shift,” the company said in a statement to WISN. “We regret the situation occurred and are happy the student was found safe. GO Riteway will continue to fully cooperate with the proper authorities as the investigation takes place. In accordance with our policies, this employee is no longer employed by GO Riteway.”
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