Raleigh kindergartner goes missing after taking wrong bus
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A Raleigh father has a word of warning for other parents after his 6-year-old daughter went missing for more than two hours this week.
"No one had any answers and the answers they gave me were all false," said Christopher Brooks, a parent at Wilburn Elementary School in Raleigh.
During the busy after-school shuffle, Brooks says his daughter Ayanna was chatting with a friend and ended up on the wrong bus and at the wrong destination. He was alerted when she failed to show up at home.
The kindergartner boarded a bus operated by Raleigh Parks and Recreation.
She had followed her friend to an after school program at the Marsh Creek Community Center.
The park staff took attendance and she was asked if she was a new student. According to the park system, the child said yes. She was allowed to stay.
Meanwhile, her father was desperately searching for her.
Brooks says he called the police and would later review surveillance video at the school.
"No one knows if she got on the bus and if so which one," Brooks recalled, adding that he could only see a blurry image of an adult walking with his daughter in surveillance video.
The Wake County Public School System says at the start of the school year, its staff takes attendance to ensure students are on the right bus. A WCPSS spokesperson says there's less guidance toward the end of the school year when most students are familiar with their correct bus and bus driver.
"Apparently they don't know what school bus to get on if this situation happened," offered Brooks. "You have to be accountable. If there's a child on your bus that doesn't belong on your bus, you need to follow procedure."
In a statement to ABC11, Raleigh's Parks and Recreation Department said, in part:
"Our department fully recognizes the error we played in this incident and cannot begin to imagine the fear and anxiety felt by the Brooks Family. For that we are truly sorry. At the time we identified that we had a child on our bus who was not listed on our roster we should have stopped and confirmed whether or not she was supposed to be there."
The park system said the kindergartner was never left unattended and was safe while in their care. They have since retrained their staff about the after school attendance policy.
"It's not acceptable," said Brooks, emphasizing other parents should be mindful of bus attendance policies. "I rely on them to transport my child back and forth. Essentially, they're the caretakers."
