Angry parents claim daycare left 5-year-old inside hot bus ‘for hours’

Parents of a five-year-old Texas boy are livid after their son was allegedly left alone on a hot daycare bus for nearly three hours Friday evening. Their complaint has also dredged up a history of previous violations at the daycare.

“I saw the whole bus empty and I tried to open the doors,” little Om Dave explained to KEYE. “I tried to kick the windows so the windows could open, and I tried to push the windows up and that wouldn’t even work.”

Om’s father, Jay, says he went to Austin’s Xplor daycare after work Friday to pick up his son. But when he arrived, nobody knew where the little boy was.

“I was thinking at 100 miles per hour. I just started looking all around that daycare – in the bathrooms, in all of the playrooms… everywhere,” his father said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I was thinking at 100 miles per hour. I just started looking all around that daycare - in the bathrooms, in all of the playrooms… everywhere," his father said.

A 15 minute search resulted in daycare staff locating Om on the bus. He had been sweating and his eyes were swollen and watery.

“I was in the bus and nobody even knowed. I was in the bus all alone,” Om added.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I was in the bus and nobody even knowed. I was in the bus all alone," Om added.

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Om’s parents filed a police report later Friday evening and a quick look at state records shows at least six previous infractions at a risk level marked ‘High’ by the Department of Family and Protective Services. At least two of those infractions indicate an error in keeping track of children, while another cites two children were found sleeping on inappropriate equipment – one in a bouncer, the other in a swing – instead of a crib.

Xplor CEO Bev O’Connell has acknowledged Friday’s incident. The Austin American-Statesman reports that the bus driver has since been fired.

“The established protocol was not followed,” O’Connell told the paper. “We’re investigating to see how and where the process broke down and will take the proper steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

As for Om, his parents are looking for a new daycare. They say they want to ensure “that I don’t send my kid anywhere where they are not careful about taking care of your loved ones who you entrusted them with.”

The Department of Family and Protective Services continues to investigate.