Suffolk mother warns parents after her child was allowed to get off wrong bus stop
Mar 24, 2025
SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A 5-year-old girl was let out at the wrong bus stop about two-and-a-half miles away from her Suffolk home recently, and the scary situation is leading the girl's mother to warn others.
Shamika, who only wants to go by her first name for this story, said the bus driver sho
uld have known better. On March 12, the bus driver, she said, dropped her child off in the Hollywood neighborhood as she was at work and her husband was late getting to the bus stop due to traffic on his way home.
“I was on the phone with my husband," she said. "He was telling me what was going on. I was on my way home from work. I got a random number that came across my phone."
That random number turned out to be the mother of her daughter’s friend. The daughter had gotten off the bus with that friend and was at their house.
“And it was just a scary situation," she said. "It was just frightening because anything could have happened.”
She said the bus driver knew her normal bus stop and is not sure why he let her off at this one without one of her parents being there.
Suffolk Public Schools told 10 On Your Side that protocol when a parent or authorized adult is not at a bus stop is to keep the child onboard, run the rest of the route and return to that bus stop later or take the child back to school. Administration would then call the parents or guardian. Shamika called the school system that night and got a call back the next day.
“And she told me they rolled the cameras back to see exactly what happened and that he was sitting in the office with her at that time," she said. "And she just apologized and said it would never happen again. And she said, 'Well, maybe it was an inconvenience for him to take her back to the school or drive back around.' That should not have been said.”
She wants other parents to be on guard.
“I just want to make other parents aware basically," she said. "I don’t know if it’s happened to anybody else. And just for them to make sure our kids are getting home safe. No room for error. I’m sorry.”
Experts say it’s also a lesson for parents to have that conversation with your child about when it is, and is not OK, to get off the bus. ...read more read less
