A New Jersey mother is demanding answers after her nine-year-old son fell asleep on a school bus on his way to summer school and woke up alone on an empty bus parked in a transportation yard. The incident unfolded in Blackwood, in Gloucester County, and when the boy finally woke, he got off the bus and was found wandering around the bus yard by himself.
The boy's mother, Wanda Chandler, said her son had simply been left behind on the bus. "He's traumatized," she said. A single mother of three, Chandler spoke about what happened just hours after the alleged incident, describing a scenario that amounts to a parent's worst fear playing out on what should have been an ordinary school morning.
According to Chandler, her son boarded the bus just after 8 a.m. It was only about two and a half hours later that she received a phone call from the Gloucester Township Public Schools telling her what had happened. Her son had fallen asleep on the way to his last day of summer school at Union Valley Elementary School, and woke up on an empty bus in the district bus yard.
The boy described waking up to an unsettling scene. "He woke up and it was buses all around. Nobody was on the bus except himself," his mother recounted. The child said he figured out how to open the door, got off the bus, and walked around the yard until he managed to find an adult who could help him.
The nine-year-old said he tried to keep his composure through it all. "I was trying to be a big boy, so I just acted brave and normal," he said. His mother, however, said the episode has left a mark, stressing how badly it could have gone. "He's nine years old. He has ADHD. This could have ended altogether differently," she said.
Chandler said she was told that Child Protective Services were called and that her son was eventually taken to school. Even so, she said she still does not know exactly how long her son was left alone on the bus, or how long he was wandering around the yard by himself before someone finally noticed him.
The mother directed her anger at the driver. "Shame on you. You should have known better. You should have practiced all safety protocols," she said. When the district and its transportation department were contacted about the incident, both referred the inquiry to the superintendent's administrative assistant, and a call back was still being awaited.