Children left on Henry County school bus for hours after falling asleep on the way home

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — A 5-year-old is safe, and home, tonight after she and another child fell asleep on the school bus and ended up riding around for hours before the driver got them back to school.

Channel 2′s Christian Jennings spoke with her mom, who feared the worst when her daughter didn’t come home, and now she wants answers.

“Every time I get on the hot bus, I just fall asleep,” Jada Nichols, a student, told Channel 2 Action News.

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Nichols, just 5-years-old, is tired after a long day of kindergarten at Dutchtown Elementary School in Henry County.

Her mom, Lynette Coleman, said on Tuesday, Nichols fell asleep on the bus and stayed on the bus nearly three more hours, without the bus driver realizing it.

“Our daughter, she’s supposed to arrive here at 2:45 but the bus has been arriving at 3:40 so we’re there from 2:30 to 3:40, and at that point, she never showed,” Coleman said.

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At the time, Coleman was at work and Nichols’ aunt was waiting for her at the bus stop.

She says the bus never showed up, so Coleman’s sister went to the school.

“They’re like, at this point we’ll have to have you guys knock on doors in the neighborhood to look for her,” was what the school said to her sister, Coleman told Channel 2 Action News. “I’m on speaker, I heard that, I immediately call police. I said my child is missing. They told us she wasn’t on the bus, they told us it was already swept. My sister demanded they do it again.”

Coleman said about 20 minutes later, the driver showed up with Nichols, and another child.

“Jada looked very flushed, she was sweaty,” Coleman said. “Jada survived but thank goodness, it could be the demise of another child if left on a hot bus for hours.”

In response to questions from Channel 2 Action News, Henry County Schools sent a statement saying that two students fell asleep on the bus, missed their stops and remained on the bus for part of the driver’s next route. Officials said the children were never left unattended and were returned to Dutchtown Elementary at 5:10 p.m.

However, Coleman said there was a different issue with the buses last week, when a driver didn’t know the route. She said she and a neighbor drove around until they found the bus themselves around 5 p.m.

“The kids were crying, screaming, sweating, saying to their parents ‘come and get me, come and find me,’” Coleman said about the situation on Thrusday last week.

Now, Coleman says she won’t let her daughter ride the bus.

Channel 2 Action News asked the school system to share its bus driver protocols, and asked if the driver from the incident on Tuesday would face any discipline and are waiting for a response.

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