COLUMBIA, SC (WIS/Gray News) – The mother of a South Carolina kindergarten student is frustrated after her son was lost on his first day of school due to a mix-up.

Terreshia Green said her plan for the first day of school last Wednesday was to pick up her 5-year-old son, Jabari, from Jackson Creek Elementary School near Columbia.

She said she shared the plan with school staff Wednesday morning when she dropped Jabari off.

But when she went to pick him up that afternoon, the school told her that Jabari had been sent home by bus, Green said.

From there, she said, she waited with school staff for about an hour for the bus to return. But when the bus returned, Jabari was not on it.

Jabari was let off the bus and dropped off at a bus stop, even though no one was there to pick him up.

“She let my child off the bus with a little girl. He doesn’t have any siblings. Come on,” Green said.

Luckily, due to the confusion, Green left her front door unlocked in case Jabari went home alone, which is what happened.

Richland Second School District officials said it was a mistake by the Jackson Creek Elementary School bus driver.

“If a child is not where they should be when they should be there, we have to take responsibility for that,” says Darci Rush, chief communications officer for Richland Second School District.

The district found that the bus driver allowed the 5-year-old to exit the bus without a designated chaperone, which violates the district’s bus driving policy.

District officials took responsibility for the error and said corrective action had been taken.

“I know the bus driver has received new training on how to handle kindergarten and K-4 students on the school bus,” Rush said.

Green said she had originally planned to give Jabari a ride the first week of school, but he would ride the bus for the rest of the school year. However, because of this mistake, she will not let Jabari ride the bus in the future, Green said.

Green said her son was fortunately safe despite the mix-up.

“He was fine. He was just scared because he had to go home alone. He had never done that before. You know, I don’t let him out of my sight outside,” Green said. “Thank God he knew where to go. And if I hadn’t unlocked the door, he would have been sitting there. Anything could have happened.”

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