Malden Spec. Ed. Student Stuck Hours On Bus Due To Address Mix-Up

MALDEN, MA — A case of "human error" resulted in a preschool student being driven around for more than two hours by the new bus company contracted by Malden for transporting special education students, officials and authorities said. Another student who was left on a bus for about 75 minutes on Wednesday was the result of a driver getting used to things on the first day of school, the bus company's president said.

Around 11:15 a.m on Aug. 29, a bus driver with NRT Bus out of North Reading picked up more than a dozen students at the Early Learning Center in Malden. One 3-year-old child was scheduled to be dropped off at 384 Main Street in Malden, which is the My Little Best Friends daycare center.

The bus driver tried to drop the child off, but no parents were present. That's because he went to 384 Main Street in Everett. Main Street doesn't have a sign welcoming drivers coming into Everett from Malden, Police Chief Kevin Molis said, so the driver got confused.

The driver dropped off five other students before again attempting to drop off the 3-year-old at the Everett address. Once more, no parents were there.

The driver was instructed by the company to take the child back to the Early Learning Center, hoping the school could figure out what to do with the child. The child got back to the school at 1:30 p.m., more than two hours after he was picked up.

A police investigation found GPS data confirmed the driver had taken the appropriate routes in dropping off students in between attempts at dropping off the 3-year-old at the incorrecg Everett address.

"A sergeant and officer did a thorough reconstruction of the incident that found there was some human error, and that it wasn't deliberate or blatant," Molis said. "They brought [the student] back [to the ELC] hoping that would be the best remedy ... they acted wisely and prudently."

John McCarthy, president of NRT Bus, said some of the rumors circulating social media about the child being left alone in a bus without air-conditioning on a day where temperatures pushed 100 degrees were false.

"The child was never alone," McCarthy told Patch, saying a bus monitor was present the whole time. McCarthy said the busses are equipped with Child-Checkmate, which would alert a driver if a child was left alone.

He also said the bus's air-conditioning was on, though admitted it can get warm on the busses when it's that humid out.

"They have a/c on, but with the door opening and closing, especially on day like that which is probably the hottest I can remember for an August school day, it gets warm," McCarthy said.

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Malden had cut school bus service in 2016, angering many parents. This is NRT's first year working with Malden Public Schools.

"The Malden Public Schools is confident that NRT has rectified this situation and will continue to monitor to insure the safety of all our students is met," the district said in a statement.

Transportation, including special education transportation, costs $3,387,000. That's five percent of the school budget, according to the FY2019 budget.

Special education transportation in the city, out of the city, and for parents/employees amounts to $2,662,000, according to the budget.

The ELC has nearly 400 students from 3 to 5 years old. The six-hour full-day program runs parents $43 a day.

Image via Shutterstock / Henryk Sadura