TOLEDO, Ohio — Last week, a school bus driver dropped a little girl off miles from her bus stop in Toledo. Fortunately, the girl is safe, but that's not good enough for her mom, who contacted 11 Investigates.
Alicia Gant wants answers as to why her 5-year-old daughter, Montanna Harris, was dropped off at the wrong location after school on Aug. 23.
Montanna was supposed to be taken by bus from her school, Old West End Academy, to her daycare on Monroe Street in central Toledo.
But her mom said she was left alone on the street at Detroit Avenue and Buckingham Street, nearly two miles from the daycare.
"That's when my daughter just began to walk down the street," Gant said.
"I got dropped off at the wrong station," Montanna said.
Gant said she didn't know her daughter was dropped off at the wrong location until the daycare called to tell her at 3:46 p.m., a half hour after Montanna was to be dropped off by the bus at 3:15 p.m.
"A stranger had picked her up from where she was dropped and the stranger took her to the daycare," Gant said.
The good Samaritan with good intentions knew something was off. She saw Montanna walking and asked if she needed help.
Montanna was able to describe to the stranger what her daycare looked like.
"If that hadn't been the case, my mind goes so many places of the 'What ifs?'" Gant said. "I'm just so grateful that this lady was there at that very moment to help my daughter and my daughter knows exactly where her daycare is."
Gant said she spoke to an administrator at the school who watched video of Montanna getting off the bus.
"They rewound a videotape and they just said that she got off of the bus," Gant said. "There was no reason to why this bus driver didn't say, 'Hey this isn't your stop.'"
11 Investigates asked the school district for a copy of the tape. The district said it does not release videos recorded on its buses in order to protect other students.
Cindy Fox, senior director of transportation for Toledo Public Schools told WTOL 11 of the drop-off that "at the beginning of any school year, the TPS Transportation Department deals with unforeseen issues that impact the routing of some students. In the case of this Old West End Academy student, there was a miscommunication about the drop-off location for the student."
But Gant said the safety of children is too critical to mess up.
"There should be no trial runs. There should be no 'working out the kinks' when it comes to getting someone's child to a designated spot," she said.
Gant said as of Wednesday, she had not been contacted by anyone from the school district or its transportation department about the situation and what would be done to prevent this from happening again. Until that happens, Gant said she will continue taking Montanna to and from school herself.
Per the statement released by TPS, Fox said the district has "addressed the situation with the bus driver, who may now face a corrective action plan."
"If you lost a child, you shouldn't be able to drive children around anymore," Gant said. "So, in that case, a punishment of some sort, this person shouldn't be allowed to drive children."
The full statement from the Toledo Public Schools Senior Director of Transportation, Carolyn Fox, reads:
"At the beginning of any school year, the TPS Transportation Department deals with unforeseen issues that impact the routing of some students. In the case of this Old West End Academy student, there was a miscommunication about the drop-off location for the student. District representatives worked directly with the family to get the matter resolved. Toledo Public Schools truly regrets this incident and appreciates the actions of a kind-hearted local resident who helped the student. This situation has been addressed with the driver, who may now face a corrective action plan. Families who still have questions about their student's pickup and drop-off locations and times should call the Transportation Department at 419-671-8541."