CONOVER, N.C. -- When you put your child on the school bus you expect they will be cared for. But one mother is outraged after learning that her autistic son was left alone on a bus for an entire day.
Betty Greenard says her 9-year-old son Chancelor is able to make sounds, but because of his autism he can't form many real words.
"He can't communicate," she said. "I never would have known what happened to him."
Greenard says on Monday morning she put Chancelor on the school bus and expected to see him that afternoon for a parent/teacher conference. When she got to school the teacher said Chancelor never showed up for class. The teacher assumed he was ill and asked how he was feeling.
"In my mind I said, 'Oh my God, something's happened to him,'" Greenard said.
About that time Greenard got a call from her friend, saying that Chancelor had just gotten off the bus at home. She said her friend told her, "He's staggering and looks really bad. His lips are parched."
It turns out his driver left him alone on the bus from 7:30 a.m. until 3:15 p.m. – almost eight hours.
Chancelor was all smiles for our camera, but his mother says his behavior has changed.
"He's not had an appetite. He's been, like, in a daze," she said.
Greenard says what happened is unacceptable.
"Anything could have happened to him," she said. "He could have gotten off the bus and gotten into that heavy traffic. Someone could have picked him up."
Chancelor's parents say their son's school bus is small and only carries five to 10 students at a time. So, they say, there's no excuse for the driver to not check every seat before she leaves.
Superintendent Barry Redmond, with Newton-Conover City Schools, says, "All bus drivers are trained to go back through their bus and do a post-trip inspection."
But, he says, Chancelor's bus driver did not check her bus that day.
Redmond said, "We've put in several practices immediately, such as a second person checking all buses once they're parked."
The school is also calling home to confirm all student absences and making bus drivers perform a checklist.
"What makes this one a little more severe is that they are special needs children and there has to be an additional level of care that we need to practice, and we do take that seriously," said Redmond.
Greenard says those changes are nice but, "They should have been doing that."
Meanwhile, the bus driver -- an employee of the district for 23 years with no prior problems -- has been suspended.
Redmond said, "There will be serious consequences," pending a final investigation by administrators.
