A 5-year-old Adelanto boy was left at a wrong bus stop, his mother told KTLA Monday.
Richard Rosas, a kindergarten student at Gus Franklin Jr. Elementary School in Victorville took the bus home for the first time Friday afternoon, but his mother said the driver dropped him off at the wrong stop.
“The worst day of my life became real. My son was supposed to be at a bus stop and didn’t arrive at the time,” Cynthia Rosas said.
Richard was left wandering the streets alone, and he cried as he tried to make his way home.
Rosas said her son was missing for an hour.
“I didn’t know what to think,” she said.
While she was trying to figure out why her son didn’t show up at his designated stop, Mario Gutierrez said he stopped to talk to the boy after spotting him on a busy street. He said he looked too young to be alone.
“We pulled over. He was hot, scared,” Gutierrez told KTLA. He said he called the police and gave the boy something to drink to make sure he was OK.
According to an incident report by the Victorville police, the boy was found near Mojave Drive and Cobalt Road. A deputy took Richard back to school where he was reunited with his mother. She is both grateful and livid.
“He shouldn’t be been left alone. This shouldn’t have happened,” Rosas said.
School administrators told Rosas that cameras on the bus show Richard walking off with a group of kids, possibly out of the driver’s line of sight. But she doesn’t think that is an excuse for her son getting lost.
“This shouldn’t have happened on your watch,” Rosas said. “He could have been hit by a car. He could have been kidnapped.”
She added that she wants the school to implement additional safeguards so this doesn’t happen to another child and family.
School officials did not respond to a request for comment Monday night.