A child who attends Conover School was left on a school bus all day Monday. The mistake by the bus driver was only discovered at a scheduled meeting that afternoon between the student's mother and his teacher.
"I was at the school for a meeting with his teacher, and my son was supposed to be at the school for the meeting," said Betty Greenard, the child's mother. "My son wasn't there, and the teacher told me he hadn't been in school and she had marked him as absent that day."
Greenard said she knew her 9-year-old son, Chancelor, got on the bus that morning.
"My boyfriend called me, and told me that my son was at home and he looked terrible," Greenard said.
She figured out that since he boarded the bus that morning and never made it inside but rode the bus home, he must have stayed on the bus all day.
"The driver failed to follow procedure to check to make sure everyone got off the bus," said Barry Redmond, Newton-Conover City Schools' superintendent.
He said the student often sleeps on the bus, and he fell asleep on the way to school. Redmond said the school system thinks the student did not get off the bus while it was parked on Monday.
Each bus Conover School uses carries between five and 12 students, Redmond said.
The incident is under investigation, and the school system is taking appropriate action against the bus driver, he said.
Greenard questions whether the school would have even told her about it if she hadn't come to school on Monday.
"If I had never had a meeting with the teacher, the school might have covered it up," she said.
Greenard said she's very concerned about her son, who's autistic. He doesn't speak a lot, but is very outgoing, she said.
"He was red and dehydrated. He was kind of out of it," she said. "He appeared to be in shock."
Greenard said she had Chancelor checked out by paramedics. Although he seemed to be fine, she's still concerned. On Tuesday, he had a fever and didn't go to school. She said she plans to take him to a doctor today.
Sherry Connor has been Chancelor's rehabilitative technician since July 1. She said she's noticed he's primarily been sitting around the house since Monday instead of being his outgoing self.
"It's very upsetting," Connor said. "Nothing like this should ever occur, especially at a school where kids have special needs and need special attention."
Greenard said one of her primary concerns is that her son was on the bus all day, near a roadway.
"What if he got out in the road? He could have been killed in the road, or smothered in the bus," she said.
The school system is reviewing its procedures to ensure a situation like this doesn't happen again, Redmond said. This includes having a teacher's assistant sweep the buses to make sure all students are off.
"We're extremely disappointed this happened," he said. "There was a failure to follow procedure, and we'll make sure it doesn't happen again."
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