A 9-year-old Detroit boy was reportedly left unattended inside a locked school bus for nearly six hours — until his older brother found him and got him out through a hatch in the roof.
The unidentified boy's mom, Tashonda Bennett, told local TV station Fox 2 that the incident took place Thursday after her son fell asleep on his ride home from the Detroit Service Learning Academy.
"My baby is 9 years old. He's traumatized, he doesn't want to go to school, he's afraid to even get back on the bus," she said for a report Friday.
Bennett also said she felt that the school "failed us."
In a prepared statement, the charter school's director, De'Angelo Alexander, said, "We are addressing this matter with the staff involved."
"Additionally, we will be conducting a thorough review of our policies and procedures to ensure that our practices are aligned with the highest standards in the transportation industry," Alexander said.
Bennett said she fell asleep and didn't realize until 7 p.m. that her son hadn't arrived home at the usual time of 3:45 p.m., so she frantically called everyone she could think of, including the school bus driver.
"He told me that my son did not get on the bus, which means he never knew that my son was even back there asleep," she alleged.
Bennett said the boy's 16-year-old brother and grandmother found the bus parked with boy inside at 9:30 p.m.
"He was asleep," the unidentified brother told Fox 2. "I was banging on the window. He woke up, he was wiping his eyes, looking around, and he just started crying."
The brother said he knew there was a hatch on top of the bus, so he used it to get the boy out.
Detroit police confirmed the sequence of events, Fox 2 said.
