A 5-year-old girl in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, got on the school bus ready for a day of summer school on Thursday, June 27, but reportedly didn’t get off the bus until after school ended — five hours later.
Staff left the girl on the bus after it transported her from Cecil Picard Elementary School to LeBlanc Elementary School around 7:30 a.m. local time, local newspaper KATC reported.
The summer school ends five hours later, at 12:30. So while temperatures soared to 94 degrees, according to The Weather Channel, and her classmates started school, the young girl apparently sat alone on the bus.
“She didn’t get breakfast, she didn’t get lunch, she was on that bus in this heat for five hours,” her mom, Donyel Rolle, told KATC.
The girl’s dad, Raynard Rolle, added: “It’s crazy, no child should have to go through that.”
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LeBlanc Elementary School in Louisiana.
Google Maps
School officials later confirmed to KATC that the girl was left on the bus, but only after Donyel and Raynard reached out. In fact, if the concerned parents hadn’t asked their daughter how her day was, they might not have learned about the incident at all, the newspaper reported.
“She said, ‘I had a bad day,’ and she said to me, ‘I’m stuck on the bus.’ In my mind, I thought she was stuck in the bus for a short time, someone probably noticed it and someone caught her,” Donyel told the newspaper. “But I was still furious because we weren’t informed about any of that.”
“Through further questioning with her, we found out that she was on the bus for five whole hours,” she added.
Raynard recalled saying at first, “This can’t be real.” My wife kept questioning her to make sure it wasn’t a joke and she told us detail by detail.”
After contacting school officials, the parents had “one conversation,” during which their daughter’s story was confirmed — though they were not allowed to view the bus security footage themselves, they told KATC.
“Basically, the man — I think he’s the assistant superintendent and the security man — said they watched the video of the bus and confirmed that our daughter was 100 percent correct, she was left on the bus for five hours,” Donyel was quoted as saying by the outlet, ” and that’s really the only conversation we’ve had with them.”
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Vermilion Parish School System Superintendent Thomas Byler was notified of the incident involving the Rolles’ daughter, he confirmed in a statement to KATC.
“We are aware of the incident and procedures and protocols regarding disciplinary measures against school staff were immediately established,” the statement said.
Raynard and Donyel told KATC they think new procedures should be put in place so no child goes through what their daughter did.
“I think the justice would be to prevent this from happening again,” Donyel said. “There needs to be a mandatory kind of rule that when you’re transporting any kind of kids, small or big, they have to look after they get off the bus.”
PEOPLE has reached out to the Vermilion Parish School System and Rolles for comment about the school bus incident.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education