PITTSBURGH -- A Pittsburgh Public Schools bus driver who police said left an 8-year-old girl alone for hours on a bus after she fell asleep has been fired.

The company the driver worked for, A-1 Transit, declined to identify the driver, but said she's been fired.

Shatonna Charlton said she was supposed to meet her daughter at the bus stop at 5 p.m. in Oakland on Tuesday. When the girl didn't get off the bus, she contacted school police.

Police said they notified A-1 Transit, a Lawrenceville company, who found the Greenfield Elementary School student sleeping in a rear seat of the bus in a transit garage.

“You always see this on TV,” said Charlton. “You never know what it’s like unless you’ve been through it. Now I know.”

The company said in a statement that every bus is double-checked when returned to the garage, and that the school district was notified when the child was found.

But school officials and the girl's mother said she wasn't found until she was reported missing.

“She told me she fell asleep,” said Charlton. “When she woke up, she didn’t know what was going on.”

Schools spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said school police are charging the driver with endangering the welfare of a child.

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