I am not making this up. My son is in K-garten. I finally convinced the DH to let him ride the bus. So this morning we loaded him on to the bus on a wing and a prayer and my dh ran over to the school to make sure he got off. Cool. He made it. Then it came time to pick him up... so we get to the bus stop 10 minutes early and sit and wait, and wait, and wait. Finally, about 50 minutes past the time he was due to arrive, I remembered I had programmed the bus garages phone number in to my cell phone. There must have been a little guardian angel that prompted me to do that. So I call the bus garage and ask where my kid might be.. it was almost an hour past dismissal time. They say they'll check in to it and call me back. A few minutes later, my phone rings. Bus garage: "Maam your sons bus has finished its route and the bus is back in the garage". That was it. Just like she was telling me to deposit another quarter. I just started screaming "Where is my child, where is my child". So I called my son's school, talked to the teacher....yes she put him on the right bus, talked to the principal, he remembered the teacher putting him on the right bus. He must have gotten off at the wrong stop, they speculated. I am just screaming, as its almost 90 minutes past dismissal time. By this time all of our neighbors had accumulated on the corner to watch the crazy woman screaming in to her cell phone. I kept asking the bus garage what to do. They had pretty much NO suggestions. So I called 911. The cops showed up about 10 minutes later. It finally occured to me that they had changed his bus route from when he had been originally assigned. They had changed his bus from 4 to 5, and perhaps they had not told the teacher. So I called the teacher back and yes, she said in fact she had put him Bus 4, which happened to be the wrong bus.(was NOT her fault) So I call back the bus garage and start screaming "Check Bus 4 check Bus 4, my son is on Bus 4, can you call them"? The attendant had NO idea what I was talking about. Me: don't you have a crisis manager or something? "Just a moment please".. on hold again. Finally, a full 90 minutes after dismissal time I notice a school bus mosying down the street. I just knew it was holding my son. I finally made out his lone vulnerable little head sitting in the front seat next to the driver. He was home! That's about all I have to say about this litte scenario. I feel such an utter sense of relief that I haven't even allowed myself to feel angry. His dad might be another story...

OH MY GOSH!!! I can imagine how upset you were. I think I would have lost it. Glad to hear that he is ok though. WOW!! Scary!

OMG! I know what you went thru...it happened to me too a looong time ago when my son was in kindergarten. He got on the right bus but decided to get off at the stop near his grandmother's (my mom's)house! I called the police thinking he was kidnapped...Thank God he was safe...and Thank God your child was safe also...I know how you must have felt, your heart just about stops!

OMG - I'm sure your heart stopped for a while!
Soooo glad you found your son!

Glad your son made it home. I always rode my bike, although I sat at the bus stop with some friends until they got picked up. Either that or a friend gave me a ride. Well that was about 4th-10th. Then I drove myself. My mom walked me to school for the first week of school K-3, then I walked myself. But then again, that was DeKalb, not Peoria. Way better environment.


Glad your son is ok.

I remember in 3rd grade, the first time I rode the bus, I got on the wrong bus. I was waiting for the D150 bus to Northmoor and got on the bus to St. Vincents instead. Good thing it was only a little ways down the street!

WAIT! I got on the wrong bus one time. I remember. I rode the bus for a week cause my bike was locked up at school and I lost the key. I went 3 miles from DeKalb all the way to Malta, and got dropped off. But I had a relative in town that I went to. I was about 8, and didn't know what was going on...Thought my parents sold me to my uncle or something.

District 150 is not the only district these things happen in..

See! What'd I tell you about district 150! rodneyk: Sure, it might not be the only place it happens--but it [i]is[/i] the most likely place for it to happen, it seems.

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Rodney, its true that this could have happened in any school district, and in fact it does. But what bothered me most about the situation was the way the transportation department handled it (or didn't handle it). My son was missing for an hour and a half. Why didn't the bus driver when she realized she had an "extra" kid radio the bus garage? The chances were pretty high that there was a frantic parent somewhere. My son told me that they got all the way back to the bus garage when the driver realized he was still on the bus. She at that point should have immediately notified someone. There were no emergency procedures in place and the staff had absolutely no plans to locate a missing child. This will change... mark my words!

ROCK ON!

On Wednesday I took our daughter to school and went to take a paper to the office. While I was in there a bus driver came in and had a little boy with her. She told me his grandmother did not speak English and she was not sure if he was at the right school or not. He was pretty small and had a blanket in his backpack so he must have been in Kindergarten. The little boy was not talking either though. I was glad to see the bus driver bring him in to make sure he was at the right place but was surprised she took him on the bus if she did not even know what school he was suppose to be at. I have heard too many things to let our daughter ride the bus. We have followed a couple buses to and from school and from the behavior we could see just following the bus I felt like complaining. The bus driver can not pay attention to driving if the kids are moving around on the bus, yelling, and arguing. At the end of the school year our school did a survey and better bus supervision was a big concern from parents. My guess is you will be taking your son to school from now on. Glad he is ok, I would have been hysterical. Cannot even imagine what you were going thru. Was your son upset or was he just having fun riding on the bus?

Boy, I think that I would have a bus phobia for the rest of my life. I think I will be driving my baby when she starts school, it's probably just easier for both of us.

I talked to my kids about what happened and they said it happened a lot especially at the start of each new school year. having to ride a school bus was one of the things they disliked about school.

I'll buy the driver a freakin cell phone for Petes sake!

If he is going to ride the bus you may want to put something in his backpack that has his name, your phone number, the correct bus number, where he is suppose to get off the bus (or your address). Kids that young may not be able to think of those things when they are scared or upset.