A Queens mother says a school bus driver left several young children to fend for themselves when he couldn’t find their school.
Rochelle Mason says she dropped her 7-year-old son off at the bus stop on 224th Street and 145th Road in Springfield Gardens Thursday morning.
She says that the bus driver told the kids he did not know how to get to the school, and after making several wrong turns, returned to the bus stop and dropped off the children.
With no adults there waiting for them, they had to walk to school or walk back home.
“I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do,” said Darius Mason, Rochelle Mason’s son. “I was like, ‘Is there someone who’s going to help us?’ And then this lady who was here, she saw the bus driver just leave us there, so then she helped us, and she helped us get home.”
Rochelle Mason says she then called P.S. 181, where she says officials didn’t even realize there was a problem.
She says she called the Allied bus company, which denied that it was one of their drivers on that route.
It took over the route from the Atlantic Express bus company, which closed on December 31 and had its routes reassigned to other companies.
“At this point, I feel very uncomfortable putting him on the school bus,” Rochelle Mason said. “I can’t get any answers from the bus company. That’s not acceptable. You cannot leave children in the street.”
Allied Transit had no comment when NY1 called.
NY1 also reached out to the Department of Education for comment
