TOLEDO, Ohio — Imagine waiting for your 11-year-old to get dropped off by their school bus, only to get a call from police that your kid was actually stranded miles from home.
That's what happened to father and son Matthew Eiser, Sr., and Matthew Eiser, Jr., on Tuesday, when four students in the LEAP Program were left at the intersection of Sudor and Lehman avenues in Point Place by their bus driver.
While there are two different stories about how the kids actually got out of the bus, it is clear that the bus driver drove away, leaving unsupervised minors on the side of the road for well over half an hour.
"Anything could have happened, he could have been kidnapped, he could have been hit by a car," Eiser, Sr., said.
While Eiser, Jr., was too shy to talk on camera, he explained to his father how he ended up stranded after his first day of school. He said it started with kids cussing on the bus ride home, causing the bus driver to become frustrated and threaten to throw the kids off on the side of the highway if they didn't stop.
"Matthew [Jr.] told me then they started to be quiet for a bit and then they start cussing again," Eiser, Sr., said. "And I guess that's where they were -- on Suder and Lehman, and that's where [the driver] kicked them off the bus."
The Suder and Lehman intersection is over six miles away from the Eiser family's apartment in west Toledo. The only tool that Eiser, Jr., had was a cell phone with no data that he used strictly for games, so he couldn't call his dad. But he could dial 911, and Eiser, Sr., received a very upsetting message from Toledo police.
He dropped everything and went to pick up his son, finding him deeply upset by the whole experience.
Eiser, Sr., called Washington Local Schools, which hosts the LEAP Program, and said he was told this was the first time they were hearing of the incident.
"All they told me is they would watch the video surveillance and give me a call back," Eiser, Sr., said.
But by Wednesday, the school still hadn't called him, so WTOL 11 went to TLC Transit, the company in charge of bussing the students. We were greeted by the owner, John Elston.
Elston said he's seen the video and claimed it shows a different side of the story. According to him, the kids weren't just cussing, they were saying slurs. And the kids weren't forced out of the bus, they let themselves out. But, WTOL has still not been given access to the video.
Elston said the incident is being analyzed by TLC Transit and Washington Local Schools.
A meeting was held between the two groups on Wednesday. Following the event, WLS Communications Director Katie Peters provided WTOL with the following statement:
"Today we were made aware that one of our contracted service providers, TLC Transportation, had an incident on their bus route that impacted student safety. Although these were not Washington Local employees, any situation involving students is one that we take very seriously. We are investigating what happened and will be following up with our service provider to ensure student safety protocols are always followed."
But Eiser, Sr., said he plans to take legal action.
"I want to press charges. I want to sue this company because this ain't right," he said.