Family upset child was left on school bus for hours in Macon

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – One Macon grandmother is upset after her 6-year-old grandson was left on a school bus for hours last week. She says if the bus driver followed protocol, the incident wouldn’t have happened and now she wants answers. 

“16 years I’ve been driving the bus so protocol — I mean safety is a must for all children,” Deborah Jordan said. 

She says she’s been behind the wheel loading and unloading students between bus stops and schools for years. While on the job, there’s one thing she says she never forgets to complete. 

“We have to do our pre-trip and post-trip inspection of the bus and when children get off we’re supposed to walk down the aisles and make sure that nothing is left on the seats and no child is left on the bus,” Jordan said. 

That’s exactly what happened to her grandson, Senqezrius. The child, diagnosed with PTSD, fell asleep while on the bus on the way to school. 

From there, according to Jordan, the driver went home, and that’s where the boy woke up and realized he was in the wrong place. 

“Some buses have the alarm, if you hit the alarm, and make sure that you hit it that’ll cover the driver that they checked their buses. The older buses don’t have it,” Jordan said. 

Once the bus driver realized Senqezrius was on the bus, he took him back to school. The Bibb County School District did confirm the incident and that there is a pre-trip and post-trip procedures that drivers have to follow. 

Jordan says if the driver was doing their job properly, that mistake wouldn’t have happened. 

“Safety is the first rule, or priority. Every year at the beginning of school, they have a video telling you the do’s and don’t’s for bus drivers,” she said. 

The grandmother is worried because if her grandson got off the bus, without the driver realizing he was there — she fears the worst may have happened. 

Now, she’s calling for action. 

“Now the child doesn’t want to get on the bus, don’t want to be around the trucks and we’ve got a problem with him now dealing with this escalating,” Jordan said. 

The Bibb School District sent 41NBC a statement saying the bus driver notified the district’s transportation director who spoke with the student and the family. The district is taking administrative procedures following this situation.