The first day of school turned out to be a strange odyssey for 4-year-old in Minneapolis, especially at the end—when the bus driver mistakenly dropped her off at a homeless shelter.
The four-year-old girl, whose name is LadyOurlove McInnis, was left stranded at Mary’s Place shelter in Minneapolis miles from her home. The girl’s address tag had become detached from her backpack and the driver didn’t call to see where she belonged, which is district police. The homeless shelter is the final stop on the route.
When the girl’s mother, LadyAshley Myers, called the school district office to ask why her daughter had not been dropped off on Wednesday, a district official said she did not know where the little girl was.
‘They told me that they wanted to put her in a taxi cab and send her home,’ Myers told KARE11.com. ‘I told her, “You’re not going to put my four-year-old in a taxi cab!”‘
So Myers went to pick the girl up herself—though she was taken aback when district officials didn’t immediately hand over the girl, who was screaming for her mother.
Drivers are supposed to call the district’s office if they don’t know where to leave a child, according to a spokesperson for the district.
“It’s unfortunate that this happened, but we are thankful that the student was safe and supervised during the entirety of the incident,’ spokeswoman Rachel Hicks said.
Hicks said driver has been reprimanded and will be re-trained to prevent the incident happening again.
Hicks added that the district has 267 different bus routes and the drivers have not yet familiarized themselves with the new students.
Myers wants the driver to be fired. She said her daughter enjoyed her first day at Bryn Mawr Elementary,but she is still traumatized by the incident.
“My daughter has not slept in the bed with me since she was two years old,” she said. “Last night, she slept in a bed with me because she was so upset. She didn’t want to school today, but I told her it’s okay to go to school. Mommy will be there to drop you off and I’ll be there to pick you up.”
