Livonia mom in shock after 5-year-old daughter with special needs left on bus for hours
LIVONIA, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Her smile is infectious, and her hugs are absolutely precious, but on Friday, Nov. 10, no one remembered to take 5-year-old Jemi Gittens of Livonia off the school bus.
"It's just devastating. You never think something like this going to happen to your child," Stacy Gittens said about her daughter with special needs. "She's very energetic. She's very delayed in her speech. She has a hard time understanding her surroundings. She doesn't understand danger."
However, that danger would find Jemi when her mom put her on the school bus Friday morning.
"I put Jemi on the bus at 8:15 a.m. in the morning, and I went and did some errands and received a phone call stating that they had found my daughter in the bus yard. She had been in the bus yard four hours by herself. A maintenance man found her," Gittens says.
Jemi was left buckled in the back of the school bus, alone and without any food, water, or idea if anyone would find her.
"I was completely shocked. One hundred percent completely shocked. I never would have thought something like this would have happened to her," Stacy Gittens says.
But since it did, Gittens says it pains to see Jemi struggle to get on the bus every morning.
"Now that I see her struggling to get on the bus in the morning, it breaks my heart. I don't want her to be afraid to go to school," she says.
She also recognizes what happened to Jemi would have never happened if the school staff followed proper procedure.
"Attendance wasn't taken that day. I was not notified she wasn't in school that day. Nobody was at the bus to let her off. And she drove the bus back to the schoolyard and never checked the bus," Gittens says.
Since the incident, Livonia Public Schools have issued the following statement regarding the incident:
"On Friday midday, we learned that a student had been left on a school bus after the bus had returned to the bus yard. Upon this discovery, discussions and interviews immediately took place, including in-person meetings and calls with the parent on Friday and again this morning.
"First, and foremost, we are incredibly distraught by this incident, and we share in the parent's serious concern.
"The district has cross-check procedures in place to prevent this from ever happening. Obviously, those procedures were not followed, and the district continues to investigate when, where, and how the lapse occurred.
"We care deeply about every child in our care, and we know that it is our responsibility to ensure that the thousands of children whom we transport to and from school each day are safe and accounted for. We take this responsibility seriously and continue to investigate the situation."