Mom says driver left sleeping child on bus

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County mother says her sleeping son was left on a school bus because the driver wouldn't let his older sister wake him up.

"I was scared and worried," 9-year-old Rasunek Thompson told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri.

The fourth grader at Marbut Elementary Theme School did as she was told when her bus driver ordered her to get off at her bus stop, even though she was still trying to wake her 7-year-old brother Michael to come with her.

"She told me to get off the bus, I'm not doing this this year," Rasunek said.

Tenika White said she knew something was wrong when her daughter walked in the door alone.

"She told me the bus driver wouldn't let her wake him up for him to get off of the bus," White said.

White told Napier Viteri she was feeding her 8-week old daughter at the time but rushed to put both kids in the car to find the school bus and her son.

Twenty minutes later she got a phone call from a neighbor. The bus dropped off Michael but no one was home.

"He was crying. He was very scared, crying", White said.

The second grader told Viteri the bus was hot and he dozed off.

"When I woke up, she said hurry up and get off this bus so I can drop these kids off," he said.

A spokesperson for DeKalb Schools said bus drivers are reminded every half hour over the radio to check the bus for kids left behind and that's what this driver did.

White said the driver knew her son was there because he was sitting in the first row.  She also said the driver threatened to discipline him.

"She stated, 'Well if you do it again I'm going to bring you straight to the school and tell the principal on you.'"

White said she wants another driver on her kids' route so this doesn't happen again.

A district spokesperson said student safety is the top priority at all times.

WSBTV