By Deborah Shawcross

Courval mother wants driver disciplined after son left on school bus

Jan 12, 2015 | 5:58 AM

On Friday morning Barb Holmes got a call that no parent wants to get. Her child’s school asked her, where is your son?
 
Seven-year-old Lachlyn was picked up from his home in Courval around 7:30 a.m. but he didn’t get off at Gravelbourg Elementary. Instead, the boy was taken to the driver’s home and was inadvertently left in the parked school bus.
 
Holmes said her son fell asleep on the school bus and when he woke up it was dark and cold.
 
“He was so scared. He didn’t know how long he had been on the bus and he heard noises so he didn’t know if he was alone on the bus.”
 
Holmes is upset with how the school handled the situation that day, as she found her son by calling the driver at home. After Lachlyn was discovered on the bus the driver took him to school.  
 
“The school never called the rest of the day, the transportation never called, the bus driver never called.”
 
She says that an apology would’ve been good enough but now she wants to see the bus driver reprimanded. 
 
“My son is the last one off (the bus) so I fully expected the bus driver to come to the house say, ‘I’m sorry, this shouldn’t have happened. It will never never happen again’. That did not happen at all.”
 
Holmes said she did get an apology from the Prairie South School Division. Director of education Tony Baldwin says drivers have to check the bus and hang an empty sign in the back window before leaving. He said there will be an investigation into what went wrong and they will make sure it doesn’t happen again.
 
Even though Lachlyn is now home safe, Holmes says he is still scared.
 
“He viewed the bus driver as his friend. He has always made drawings for him and talked to him quite frequently so it’s very very much a trust issue as well and that’s what really bothers me.”

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