A 3-year-old Elizabeth boy was left unattended on a school bus for an undetermined amount of time before he was found unharmed.
According to the child's parent, the boy was picked up at approximately 7:30 a.m. from his bus stop and was supposed to have been dropped off at Dr. Albert Einstein School on North Broad Street Monday morning, but he never got off the bus.
It was not until shortly after 10:30 a.m. that the mother of the child realized something was wrong.
" I received a call from an automated machine informing me that my child was not in school. I contacted the school, puzzled by the message", the parent said.
Sometime around 10:50 a.m. she was advised that her son was found safe by the bus driver.
After further inquiries, it was determined that the child was apparently left in the locked bus for an undetermined amount of hours according to officials.
The driver of the bus, who was not identified, reportedly spoke with the mother of the child and apologized.
The Elizabeth Board of Education was contacted and issued the following statement:
*"This was a private contractor that had this particular bus driver under their employment. What took place was unacceptable and we have advised the company that the driver involved is to no longer to do any work for EPS. What happened is a serious infraction. The State of New Jersey has laws designed to eliminate this from happening and we expect those guidelines to be enforced to the fullest extent."
The mother also reported that she met with board members this afternoon and they are making some changes, including having the receiving teachers walk to the back of the buses to make sure their students are all out.
"Don't even want to imagine if this would have occurred on a very hot or cold day, I could have lost my child" the mother said.