Imagine going to pick your kid up from school and finding out that they aren't there.
Waldo Rivera said that is what happened last Monday when his wife went to pick up their 8-year-old son from Charles R. Drew Elementary Magnet School in Pompano Beach.
The family told NBC6 that Jeremy, who is living with autism, was not supposed to go on the bus last week – but when his mom came to pick him up from school, he wasn’t there.
“We are in a world where there is no security where you leave your kid thinking they are there and they are not there,” Rivera said.
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The family would soon learn that Jeremy was placed on a bus and dropped off more than three miles away from the school.
Rivera said that a good Samaritan saw his son at the bus stop and noticed that he looked lost.
“I said to him, 'So you know your mother’s number?' He said yes, so we called the mother,” Keiry Herrera said.
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Hererra stayed with the 8-year-old for over an hour until his parents came to get him.
"I told her, 'Don’t worry ma’am, I am a mother too. I will take care of him,'" she said.
Broward County Public Schools said that the 8-year-old’s bus authorization did not begin until the following day and released a statement that read in part, “Upon becoming aware of this incident, the school’s principal immediately investigated and revised the school’s procedures to ensure a similar situation does not happen in the future. The principal remains in communication with the student’s parent.”
The family said they met with school staff last Thursday to make sure something like this never happens again.
