COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A 5-year-old girl was mistakenly sent home on a bus instead of going to her after-school program, leaving her alone on her porch for over three hours.
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Kyshon Schenck arrived at Dowell Elementary School on Thursday to pick up his children, only to find his youngest daughter missing. She had been placed on a bus and sent home by mistake, and when she arrived home, no one was there to greet her.
“My main concern is the people who let her leave that building. She should’ve never got on that bus,” Schenck told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell.
The Cobb County School District says it is aware of this unfortunate incident and working to determine what happened to help prevent it from happening again.
“She was supposed to be there, she was never supposed to leave that school,” her father said.
He immediately called the child’s mother, Duranda Jones, and rushed home. He found his daughter sitting on the porch with a sandwich and a chair, provided by a neighbor who doesn’t speak much English.
“I didn’t even know whose chair and sandwich that was to be honest,” Schenck said.
“It’s the worst feeling ever. She got up, she cried hysterically and I cried,” the father added.
Jones expressed her frustration with the situation.
“They need to be held accountable for it. If it was vice versa, if I left her at the school, I would have consequences for leaving her there,” she said.
The Cobb County School District is investigating the incident and has stated that the safety of their students is their top priority. They are working to determine what happened to prevent it from happening again.
The parents said the school admitted to the mistake and waived the payment for the day’s after-school program, but they don’t think that’s enough for the pain they caused.
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