Five-year-old Maroush’s first day of school, was memorable but not for the reasons one might expect.
“I was crying all night, all night yesterday,” said her mother, Fatima Farooq.
On Thursday afternoon, Farooq lived a nightmare; waiting for the bus to drop off her daughter and not seeing her little girl come off it.
Farooq says she left messages but didn’t hear back until much later.
READ MORE: Mom feared child was ‘kidnapped’ after JetBlue sends 5-year-old boys to the wrong cities
She said the driver thought Maroush might have been left behind at the school, École Du Bout-De-L’Isle in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue.
Turns out the girl was left on Tanglewood Street, about 1.5 kilometres away from her actual stop, on the corner of Boisé and Meaney streets in Kirkland.
It was a woman in the neighbourhood who discovered Maroush standing on the street and after looking at the girl’s backpack tag, she was able to drive her to the proper bus stop.
“It was fortunate enough that she was back home but what could have been the situation if she could have been lost?” Farooq wondered.
“Who would be responsible? Is it the transport? Is it school, is it the commission?”
Global News reached out to the school, they referred us to the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school board.
The board said that even though it’s an isolated case, it’s an unacceptable situation and have taken the case to the bus company, as they are responsible for the kids.
It turns out the route was given to a spare driver who is not familiar with the drive.
“He didn’t know the route, so he was checking on the list, but he didn’t know, he didn’t mark down that kid was on the bus,” said Yvon Roy, the manager for Autobus Jona, the company hired by the school to transport the kids.
“The driver was taken out of the school run,” Roy added.
Roy admitted perhaps bigger tags to recognize kindergarten kids could help.
Tags the school board uses are slightly larger than a credit card.
Farooq agrees change might be the solution to avoid mistakes that could have potentially dire consequences.
“They maybe should have a conductor, who just checks that each and every student who is getting off the bus is going to the right person,” Farooq suggested.
Global News reached out to the school board to see if any changes are planned, however no reply had been received at the time this article was published.
Comments