HOPEWELL, Va. -- A Hopewell mother reached out to the CBS 6 Problem Solvers because a stranger found her 3-year-old son wandering alone after being dropped off by the school bus.
What makes matters worse, Clarice Fayton says this isn’t the first time this has happened since school started last week.
After his Hopewell Head Start program, Fayton’s son is supposed to be dropped off at daycare each day, but for some reason he's already taken two dangerous detours in just the first week of school.
"Right over there," said Fayton, pointing at the housing complex where her son was left, alone, and twice.
Clarice Fayton
Old enough to walk and talk, but scared out of his mind, three-year-old Jayceon was picked up at the Woodlawn Learning Center and dropped off at the nearby housing complex by a bus driver and left to fend for himself.
"My frustration is they keep apologizing saying it won't happen again, but I can't trust them,” Fayton said Tuesday. “I can't trust the school, the bus driver. I just can't."
Fayton says she was furious when her son was dropped off at his own housing complex on Monday, which is seven miles from the day care. It was five days after the first incident.
"They brought him to my complex and let him off with some woman and asked if she could take him to his mother," Fayton said.
Jayceon
The Hopewell Schools assistant superintendent sent CBS 6 an email, which said they were aware of both incidents and knew the child was dropped off in the wrong location twice.
The email also said that safety is the system’s number one priority and they are investigating. It said that Hopewell Schools will put new procedures in place and reinforce current ones.
One current rule is the tagging of book bags. Fayton says luckily her son’s backpack had one, and that's why someone living at the complex walked him across the street and delivered him to his daycare.
"He's only three. Anything could've happened,” Fayton said. “He could've walked across the street and been hit. You never know."
Hopewell Schools say they will now produce to enforce checks and balances on bus monitors, to ensure children are being picked up and dropped off to the right location and person.
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