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Parents outraged after 6-year-old daughter was dropped at wrong bus stop
A couple of Dearborn Heights parents say their 6-year-old daughter with special needs was dropped off at the wrong bus stop - and the school did nothing to help find her.
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (FOX 2) - A Dearborn Heights couple says their 6-year-old daughter with special needs was dropped off at the wrong bus stop - and the school did nothing to help find her.
"I'm thinking did something happen to my daughter," said Marcus White. "Now I'm in protection mode."
White's daughter Adele was missing for an hour and a half after being dropped at the wrong bus stop more than two miles from home. Adele also deals with speech issues, making it tough to communicate.
Adele was coming from River Oaks Elementary School - a Dearborn Public School. Her mom, Crystal, is 9 months pregnant and panicked Wednesday afternoon.
"At that moment I was in pain, due to stress," she said. "
When she didn't show up at her stop off Warren near Telegraph, the Whites knew something wasn't right. There was no answer at the school, and no one was there either.
Time was ticking - more than an hour at this point.
"I called the police department and they said they had just received a call of a missing child roaming in some trailer home areas," Crystal said.
She ended up in a mobile home park and was found wandering near the busy road, Warren Avenue. That's when someone who lives here stepped in to help.
"He took her in the house and gave her some cookies and something to drink, and that's when he called the cops," Marcus said.
An hour and half after he was supposed to pick her up from the bus stop - dad was reunited with his very scared, very confused daughter.
"Just think how easy it was for that man to grab my daughter and say, 'come into the house,' just think if it was someone intending to do evil," he said.
Dearborn Schools Superintendent Dr. Glenn Maleyko is sincerely apologizing to this family, calling what happened isolated. A review of cameras in the bus - shows the substitute bus driver asking if it was the child's right stop - she said yes.
But - regardless, Maleyko says they are reviewing protocol to make it safer, especially when there is a substitute driver.
It's a start, but not enough for these parents.
"Oh no she's not getting on any more," Marcus said.
"If I've got to wobble down the stairs," Crystal said, "I'll take her."
Parents Marcus and Crystal White.