Prince Oquendo couldn’t make it to first day of school.
In a shocking incident, a five-year-old kindergartner was left on the school bus for about four and a half hours in 85 degree Celsius temperature after the bus driver forgot to drop him at the school.
Prince Oquendo couldn’t make it to his first day of school at Monocacy Elementary Center. Instead, little Prince had to spend some time in a hospital to recover from dehydration.
Prince’s mother Michelle Oquendo said that the bus picked up her son for half-day kindergarten in Amity Township on Tuesday morning.
But the bus did not drop Prince when it returned afternoon. Panicked Michelle contacted the school officials and was told that he had been marked absent. Later, Prince was found inside the bus which was parked in the company lot.
“It was traumatizing to me. He was hot, sweaty. He didn’t even know who I was at first,” Michelle Oquendo was quoted as saying by CBS Local.
“When the door shut, he started to hit the doors and yell for the guy to pay attention to him. And the guy just kept on walking. He started crying, and basically spent his time crying on the bus,” she said.
According to media reports, the driver failed to check the bus before leaving it. The transport company immediately terminated the driver for not following the procedures.
“Generally, the drivers check for backpacks, water bottles. The driver didn’t do that,” Daniel Boone Area School District Superintendent James Harris told CBS Local.
“It just goes to show how important our procedures are and transportations every day in the safety of our kids. We don’t need to be doing anything new. We just need to do what we are supposed to be doing,” he added.
Monocacy Elementary Center has decided to hold a meeting for parents to clear their concerns after the incident was brought out.
However, Michelle Oquendo has decided to drop Prince back and forth to the school as she doesn’t want him to be on any bus anymore.