LIVONIA (WWJ) - The Livonia Public School District said they have launched an investigation into how a 5-year-old special needs child was left on a bus in the school yard for at least four hours on Friday.
Stacy Gittins took to Facebook to share how her daughter, 5-year-old Jemi Gittins, was left strapped in without food, water or access to a bathroom in a school bus for most of the morning and into the afternoon hours on Nov. 10th.
The young child was eventually found unharmed by a maintenance worker. The school transportation services immediately called Gittins when her daughter was discovered, but the incident has made a last impression on her family.
"Now I’m scared sending my daughter off to school on the bus or any of my kids," she wrote. "As I lay here thinking about my baby girl left all alone [Friday], my blood just boils. [Friday] I was in shock... [Saturday] I'm so angry. So much was done wrong in my eyes. This can never happen again."
Gittins said she saw her daughter, who is one of several special needs children who use the dedicated bus, off to school at her normal pick-up time at 8:15 a.m. and noticed there was a substitute bus driver. The Livonia mother went about her morning with grocery shopping and other errands before she got a phone call as she pulled into her driveway.
"I got a phone call at 1 o' clock saying Jemi was found in the bus yard in the bus by a maintenance man," said Gittins of her daughter. "On Friday I was just shocked. Over the weekend, I just developed more and more anger. Like how could this happen?"
Gittins added that her daughter had soiled herself due to how long she had been left on the bus.
"Thank goodness Jemi is very resilient," Gittins said to WXYZ. "She was telling me that she was crying. She’s not 100% vocal but when I asked her if she wanted to ride the bus she screams no. So I do know that it has affected her."
Livonia Public Schools said they are "deeply distraught" over the incident and have immediately launched an investigation into how the 5-year-old was left behind.
They released the following statement to WXYZ on the matter:
On Friday midday, we learned that a student had been left on a school bus after the bus had returned to the bus yard. Upon this discovery, discussions and interviews immediately took place, including in-person meetings and calls with the parent on Friday and again this morning.
First, and foremost, we are incredibly distraught by this incident and we share in the parent’s serious concern. The district has cross-check procedures in place to prevent this from ever happening. Obviously, those procedures were not followed, and the district continues to investigate when, where and how the lapse occurred.
We care deeply about every child in our care, and we know that it is our responsibility to ensure that the thousands of children whom we transport to and from school each day are safe and accounted for. We take this responsibility seriously and continue to investigate the situation.
Gittins made clear that she didn't want the bus driver to lose their job over the incident, but hoped that it serves as a wake-up call to implement more procedures to prevent the situation from occurring again to any student and their family.
"Not only special needs, but any child," Gittins added.