Boston 1st grader left on bus for hours after missing drop-off, mother says

Her son is now too anxious to ride the bus, she says.

A student looks out of the window of a school bus on the first day of school for Boston Public Schools. Tanner Pearson for The Boston Globe

What was supposed to be an end to an exciting day of school turned into a nightmare when a Boston mother reportedly waited for hours for her first-grader to return home on the bus.

Ronda Johnson told CBS News Boston that her first-grader Justice was eager to ride the bus home for the first time earlier this week. He was due to return home at 3:30 p.m.

Johnson told the station that she waited 30 minutes, then an hour, and then started to become anxious and scared about what had happened to her youngest son. The new app tracking buses wasn’t working.

The mom began calling the school and then the bus dispatch center. Eventually, personnel found her son after searching the bus yard, and he was returned home after 7 p.m.

“I run on the bus, and I am running down the aisle looking for my son. He is passed out in the seat with a whole puddle of drool,” Johnson told CBS News Boston. “My baby was on that bus for like four hours.”

Johnson said the driver apologized but did not answer how the mishap happened.

“The safety of our students on yellow school buses is our top priority, and we will work with our contractor to get to the bottom of what happened and ensure that any appropriate follow-up action is taken,” a spokesman for the Boston Public Schools sent in a statement to Boston.com.

After this harrowing experience, Johnson told CBS News Boston her son is now too anxious to ride the bus.