5-year-old with autism dropped at wrong bus stop, missing for hours

A mother is demanding answers after she says her son with autism was put on the wrong school bus and dropped off at the wrong stop in the Sto-Rox School District.

She says her child was left wandering and in distress for more than two hours.

She claims the district mishandled the situation and is now thanking the good Samaritan who waited with her little boy until his big brother, Dior, found him.

"I was panicked. I was shaking. I'm trying to call everybody,” said Lashawna Battles, whose 5-year-old, Jeremiah Claybourne, had his first day of kindergarten Monday.

TRENDING NOW:

• Pittsburgh International to allow non-ticketed visitors access to Airside Terminal
• North Korea fires missile that passes over northern Japan and into the sea
• PHOTOS: Allegheny County Most Wanted
• VIDEO: Renee Baio tells mother of Sandy Hook victim that her children may be in a better place

She snapped a picture of him on the bus Monday morning, which hours later turned into a nightmare.

"Dior called me about 3:35 and was like, ‘Mom JJ didn't come off the bus and he's not on the bus.’ I'm like, ‘What do you mean he's not on the bus?!’"

Battles claims her special-needs child was not only put on the wrong bus, but he was dropped off at the wrong stop.

Jeremiah was supposed to be dropped off on the corner of 3rd and Broadway, but he was actually found six blocks down, on 9th Street.

Battles says a crossing guard told her a parent noticed Jeremiah wandering around and waited with him until he and his brother were reunited.

Channel 11 reached out to the school district and a spokesman said the child was on the right bus, but was dropped off at the wrong spot, adding, “At no point in time was the child lost.  He was with a crossing guard and when the parent didn't show up at the stop he was supervised by the police until the parent arrived.  And that's standard protocol."

"No sympathy, they didn't own up to it," Battles said.

Channel 11 reached out to the bus company, Durham School Services, whose officials said they are looking into the complaint.

Cox Media Group