North Carolina Mom Speaks Out After Son Gets Lost on School Bus on 1st Day of School

A mom from North Carolina spoke out after her son's school mistakenly placed the young child on a school bus that he was never supposed to ride.

In an interview, Tracy Williamson told "Good Morning America" that she went to the school to pick up her 6-year-old son Avery at the end of his opening day. Much to her horror, she could not locate him.

When she asked staff at her kid's school where he was, she said they told her Avery was on the school grounds. However, Williamson said she later learned her son had been placed on a school bus by accident.

Williamson was in a panic as she searched for her missing son

Williamson said she immediately asked them if they had lost her kid. They replied that he was not lost and should be in the cafeteria. That was not the case, as Avery was no longer on the school property or on the school bus.

According to Williamson, the bus driver had already dropped him off, and her son was later found by a neighbor crying near his family's home. She said that the bus driver let Avery get off the bus when he really should not have. That was when she panicked.

The worried mom said she could not track her son down for at least two hours. The principal assured her that because her son is 6, he is not allowed to get off the bus. They said he might have fallen asleep, but the bus driver maintained that he had dropped the kid off.

Cumberland County Schools, the district where Avery's school belongs, issued a statement to Fayetteville Observer about the incident. They said that their top priority is the safety of their students. While they regret this situation happened, they are grateful that the student was safe. They added that district and school officials are now looking into this situation to determine exactly what happened and how they can prevent it from happening in the future.

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Zum working with 4 states to manage student transportation

The American School Bus Council, a group of government officials, school bus providers, and manufacturers, does not track how often kids end up on the wrong school bus or get dropped off at the wrong location. The coalition said that children are 70 times more likely to get to school safely on a bus than in a car.

A company called Zum is also working with school districts in four different states - Illinois, Texas, Washington, and California to manage the transportation of students and give parents the ability to track their kids through a smartphone app that sends out notifications when school buses arrive at a location and when a child has already boarded a bus.

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