PETERSBURG, Va. -- A class of Petersburg elementary students got stranded at school after their bus took off without them on Monday.
As a result, parents of more than a dozen students had to go pick up their children after officials said a first grade teacher's lesson ran long.
Parents said they have received two different stories about what happened at J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School.
One child's uncle wants know how no one noticed so many kids were missing from the bus.
"They left me," David Cook said his six-year-old nephew told him after the boy had to get picked up from school.
"A whole class missed the school bus to come home," Cook said.
Nicole Bell, a spokesperson for Petersburg schools, said that the first grade teacher and her students were so engrossed in the classroom, that the teacher missed the announcement that it was time for the students to head to the bus stop.
The school system admitted that 17 students at Stuart were then without a ride home, until their parents could be called.
Cook said a phone call early Tuesday morning clarified what happened, but he now wants something put in place so it doesn't happen again.
"It would have been extremely difficult to turn around several buses for those 17 kids," Bell said, adding that the ripple effect would have made dozens more late getting home.
Bell said this is the first time this has happened in Petersburg and that parents were called as soon as the mistake was discovered.
No students were ever left alone or were in any danger.
