LOWELL, Mass. (WHDH) – Lowell School District officials said a bus driver if now off the job after a kindergarten student was left alone on a school bus Monday morning for five hours.
Police responded at around 1:15 p.m. to the McAvinnue Elementary School on Mammoth Road for a report of a student who had been left on a bus earlier in the morning.
Police said a driver for the Dracut-based SPNR Transportation completed a morning route, which included a drop-off at the school, before returning home with the bus.
The driver found the 5-year-old boy on-board the bus five hours later when he began his afternoon route, according to police. Temperatures reached 82 degrees on Monday.
Sources said the driver was seen on bus surveillance cameras not following protocol. Lowell Mayor Ed Kennedy said the driver did not check to see if students were still on board when he completed his route.
“We have zero tolerance for that and so the bus driver is no longer driving in Lowell,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy said the school did notify the boy’s parents that he never showed up for class Wednesday and for five hours, no one could locate where the boy was. The boy was evaluated by the school nurse and found to be well.
The Department of Children and Families and the Lowell School Department were notified. The incident is under investigation.
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