The grandmother of a Kansas kindergartener is demanding answers after a routine school day turned into a harrowing ordeal for her grandson, who was left on a school bus for several hours when they fell asleep on their way to school.
Five-year-old Lane Meitl ended up in the driveway of the drivers own home after completing the mornings school dropoff.
The driver had parked the vehicle completely unaware there was still a young passenger asleep on the seats of her bus.
Lane woke up hours later to find himself stranded and locked inside the bus in the tiny city of Hoxie, home to about 1,000 people.
Five-year-old Lane Meitl ended up in the driveway of the bus drivers own home after completing the mornings school dropoff route
Lanes grandmother Leta Meitl cannot understand how such an oversight occurred
Lanes grandmother was in disbelief.
How could that happen? Leta Meitl said to KWCH. You count three getting off the bus. You count three getting on the bus. Its not rocket science.
The Hoxie School District acted swiftly and confirmed the female bus driver is no longer employed with the district since the October 28 incident.
We learned that a student had been left on a school bus for a portion of the school day. Thankfully, the student was not harmed, and we are continuing to support the family, the district said in a statement.
Despite the districts assurance that Lane was unharmed, Leta couldnt stop imagining her grandsons confusion and fear.
I cried. I just kept wondering what was going on in his little mind, she said.
Over the last few weeks the grandmother has been looking for answers as to how the incident occurred.
Lanes mother, Taylor, posted online how the district had been supportive since the incident
The Hoxie School District confirmed that the female bus driver is no longer employed with the district since the incident on October 28
Thankfully, weather conditions in Kansas were neither too cold nor too hot and the little boy was fine but his family shudders to think of what might have happened under harsher weather conditions.
Leta said she hopes that drivers will now make it a habit of checking their buses at the end of their shifts, before walking out.
It takes less than 10 seconds to walk to the back and back to the front of the bus, she said.
Despite the scare, Lanes mother, Taylor, expressed gratitude for the districts response.
Hoxie has been very kind to us about this and continuing to support us. We do love Hoxie and are very grateful for the school district, she wrote online.