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Report: Driver walked by 4-year old left on bus in neighborhood with sex offenders

Posted at 6:31 PM, Feb 24, 2015
and last updated 2015-02-24 18:40:45-05

RICHMOND, Va. -- Questions abound after a four-year-old girl was left on a Richmond school bus Monday. The child then walked off the bus, which was parked at the bus driver's home, and walked down the street in the city's Fulton Hill neighborhood.

A CBS 6 investigation revealed over two dozen sex offenders live within a two-mile radius of where the bus was parked.

sexoffenders

One question some have is whether the bus driver was in the wrong to bring the bus home. While school leaders initially told CBS 6 that was against the district policy, a school official also said that was not technically not a violation since some drivers do have permission to sometimes park their buses at home instead of the city's bus depot.

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CBS 6 found one bus driver with her bus parked at her residence also in Fulton Hill Tuesday. CBS 6 reporter Joe St. George asked her  if school leaders expected her bus to be returned to the garage.

"I didn't hear that yet, so maybe I need to call my supervisor," the driver said.

busdriver

While the investigation into the driver and the bus aid continues, it appears that the alarm designed to prevent children from being left on the bus was functioining.

"It's my understanding that the alarm system that was installed on the bus was working," Kim Gray, an RPS school board member said.

That implies the driver would have had to walk past the child and to the back of the bus to turn off the alarm.

"I hope this doesn't happen again," Gray said.

Gray said that new rules will likely go into effect banning drivers from taking buses home because of the incident . Gray also said that new GPS technology will keep drivers more accountable going forward.

Stay with WTVR.com and CBS 6 News for updates on this developing story.