CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Six-year-old Connor had a rough day on Tuesday, his third day of first grade at Liberty Elementary School. On the way to the bus stop, he fell and scraped his knee. When he got on the bus, he was crying.

He fell asleep on the way to school. But instead of waking up and getting off the bus with the others, he woke up alone on the bus. Everyone else was gone, including the driver, and he was left behind. Connor started crying and got off the bus, his mother said. He wandered around and screamed for help until a school worker heard him and brought him to school a full hour after classes had started.

“When I found out, I had a meltdown at work,” Conner’s mother, Crystal Piti, told Clarksville Now. “The principal apologized profusely, but they screwed up.”

An hour alone on the bus

Piti said she helped Connor onto the bus at 8:15 a.m. and contacted the school office about 10 minutes later to ask a teacher to examine his knee, which was scraped from the fall. Apparently the teacher never received that message.

Classes at Liberty Elementary began at 8:35 a.m., but Piti received no call or text message about her six-year-old’s absence.

Over an hour later, at 9:40 a.m., an hour after the bus was parked, Conner woke up. Piti said she was told Connor got off the bus and called for help. He was found by a maintenance worker and was able to tell the man his name and school. The worker took him to the school, which is right outside the CMCSS bus parking station. At the school, the nurse gave him fluids and crackers, and the principal called Piti.

Bus safety guidelines were not followed

Anthony Johnson, spokesman for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, told Clarksville Now that there are several procedures in place to prevent the incident, but they were not followed. “The driver failed to perform the thorough inspection required by CMCSS policy after each trip,” Johnson said.

“The bus driver has been employed by CMCSS for three years without any previous safety incidents. The driver has been transferred to another job pending the outcome of the Human Resources investigation.”

In response to the incident, school bus drivers are receiving additional training.

“The CMCSS Transportation Department works with its instructors and lead drivers to ensure that all drivers are reminded of the district’s safety policies and procedures and, after training, are aware of their responsibility to ensure that no child is left unattended,” Johnson said.

Leaving a student unattended in a CMCSS vehicle is a zero-tolerance offense, according to district documents.

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A Bus Scan Alert (Child Checker Alarm) system is installed on every CMCSS bus. It is designed to be activated at the end of each trip and must be deactivated by the driver at the back of the bus while checking the seats en route. “Even if there is no alarm, all drivers are required to check the bus after each trip to make sure there are no students on it,” Johnson said.

The incident is still being investigated by the CMCSS.

“It could have been much worse”

Her son’s initial absence from class was not the first miscommunication between the school and Piti, who has lived in the same Dotsonville home for seven years. She said she was not informed until the day before school started that her son had been moved from Woodlawn Elementary to Liberty Elementary. Both schools are located on Dover Road in western Montgomery County.

After her son was found, she went to the school and picked him up. When they found him, he was distressed and crying, but when she got there, he was in good spirits and got back on the bus Wednesday morning, Piti said. The route was assigned to a different driver.

Piti said she is trying to be understanding. “I am angry about the whole situation, but I am not directly angry at anyone, including the bus driver,” she said. “I don’t wish anyone to lose their job, but I think this is a serious problem.”

The timing is extremely difficult for Piti: it will soon be the first anniversary of the death of her 18-year-old daughter.

“It could have been a lot worse, and it puts me in that panic mode again,” she said. “And I try as best I can to be grateful that it was a good outcome and not the worst.”

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