UAE: 4-year-old child “forgotten” on school bus, parents say: “We were lucky that our child was alive”

NEW DELHI: A four-year-old student boarded the bus but could not reach the classroom as the school staff forgot to drop her off, Khaleej Times reported.

According to the child’s parents, the girl got on the bus at around 6 a.m. and fell asleep, so the staff forgot to drop her off at school. The bus driver found her crying during the second trip of the boys’ bus.

The child’s mother recalled the incident and said: “She has been going to KG1 for a few days. She gets up at 5 a.m. and the bus comes at 6 a.m. She is at school at 6:35 a.m. Children who get up so early often fall asleep. That’s why I make it a point to remind the conductor to look after her.”

On the day of the incident, the child boarded the school bus at around 6 a.m. but did not reach his classroom in time, the mother said.

“At 7:30 am, the conductor called and informed me that my child had fallen asleep, was left behind on the bus and could not reach the classroom. I told him to take her home immediately, but he did not. It was only when I called her teacher that she came to know about the incident.

The mother further stated that her daughter hit her head on the front seat, which made her wake up and realise that all the big students were sitting there, that is, boys and older students from the second journey. It was only when she started crying that the conductor realised that she was still sitting in the seat. After the incident, her parents took her to the hospital for a check-up.
The mother claimed that staff downplayed the incident as minor and said she had dozed off on the bus, The Khaleej Times reported.

“What if a different bus had been used for the second trip? They would have found out only at noon on the return journey. We have heard of so many unfortunate incidents,” the mother said, citing cases such as the recent death of a seven-year-old boy who was left in a car and other similar cases of children suffocating.

The family has taken the child out of school for now and complained to the local authorities (Child and Family Protection – Social Services Department), the mother said, adding that her child will not go to school this year and will opt for online classes.

“We are lucky that our child comes back alive. I pray that no other parents and children have to go through such a miserable situation,” the mother stressed.