MARLBORO, MASS. (WHDH) - An investigation is underway in Marlboro after a mother said her young child was put on a bus he was never meant to be on and dropped off alone on a local street after his first day of school last week.
Stephanie Bagu told 7NEWS her first grade son was supposed to attend an after-school program at Goodnow Brothers Elementary School last Wednesday. When she arrived to pick him up, though, she said he wasn’t there. And she said no one seemed to know where he went.
“Immediately, you have a sinking feeling,” she said.
Bagu said she then got a call from a number she did not know. The call was from a woman driving home from work who saw Bagu’s son standing on the side of Bolton Street in Marlboro. The woman found Bagu’s number in the child’s backpack.
After receiving the call, Bagu rushed over to get her son. She said he had been in the area for three hours.
“We hugged him and tried to calm him down,” she said.
She said she asked her son what happened.
“He’s like, ‘I told them I don’t belong on this bus and they still put me on the bus,’” Bagu said.
Though distraught about the situation, Bagu said she is thankful for the outcome.
“I am grateful that he was OK. He wasn’t hurt or anything,” she said. “I’m just really thankful that someone didn’t walk off with him.”
Bagu said this also was not the first time this has happened.
While this latest incident was “more severe,” Bagu said her son was previously placed on a bus he was not supposed to ride.
“At least the bus driver understood him and knew he wasn’t supposed to be there and he was scared to get off the bus,” Bagu said.
In that first incident, she said the driver brought her son back to school.
Selena Salguero shared a similar story about an incident involving her daughter last year. In her case, though, she said an app she uses to track her children’s whereabouts worked.
“We knew where she was,” Salguero said. “She was scared. But she was OK.”
Marlboro Public Schools superintendent Mary Murphy responded to Bagu’s story, saying in part, “This was a terrifying incident for the family.”
“Families trust us with their children and [it] is our responsibility to ensure that students are dismissed to the proper location,” Murphy said. “It is obvious that the school procedures failed.”
Murphy said a full investigation was taking place as of Tuesday afternoon.
“Once all the facts are collected, we will share a detailed plan to ensure that this never happens again,” Murphy said.
Bagu said the Marlborough Public Schools need to get the wheels in motion to take action.
“There has to be more procedures in place to prevent something like this from happening,” she said.
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