North Texas family upset after school bus driver drops 8-year-old at wrong stop: "He was traumatized"
A North Texas grandmother is demanding answers after a school bus driver dropped her 8-year-old grandson off in the wrong neighborhood.
Grandmother's safety concerns
Fort Worth ISD says it is taking steps to prevent this from happening again, but Amparo Wynn doesn't believe those measures are enough.
"He could have gotten abducted," said Wynn. "He could have taken a wrong turn. He could have gotten run over. Anything could have happened."
Wynn says her grandson, David, is in second grade at Clifford Davis Elementary School.
"He is a very humble kid," she said. "Kindhearted, sweet."
Grandson's frightening experience
When his bus was late on Tuesday, Wynn went inside to call the Fort Worth ISD transportation department.
"Then a few minutes later, my grandson comes walking through the door - shaking, scared, with tears in his eyes, heart beating fast, and immediately I jumped up, 'What's wrong, what's going on?'" Wynn said.
According to her grandson, the bus driver made David get off at the intersection of Stafford and Mansel, which is about a quarter mile from their house. He also had to cross a busy street by himself.
Wynn says luckily, a woman stopped to help him across the road.
"For David not knowing the area, not knowing where he was at, it was probably an eternity," Wynn said.
Calls for accountability for substitute driver
FWISD confirmed David's assigned bus driver was out that day, and a substitute took over the route. Wynn says that the driver still needs to be held accountable.
"She failed my child," she said. "She failed him. She put him in danger. She neglected him... and I'm taking it to the full extent of the law."
Seeking legal action
Wynn is looking into potential legal action, even as the district says, "The safety of our students is our top priority, and we are taking both immediate and long-term measures to prevent incidents like this from occurring in the future."
This isn't the first time something like this has happened in FWISD. In September 2022, the district sent apologies to parents after a bus driver dropped off several elementary kids in the wrong neighborhood.
"It's unacceptable," Wynn said. "This is unacceptable."
Grandmother's commitment to safety
Wynn says she'll do whatever it takes to keep David safe, even if it means quitting her job to be there to pick him up from school each day.
"I told him that was I going to do my best to protect him and to assure him that this was not going to happen to him again," she said. "It's not.
Future safety measures planned
FWISD says it plans to launch a new program in the 2025-2026 school year that will give students ID badges to use when boarding and exiting the bus.
The full statement from the district:
"Fort Worth ISD is aware of the recent incident where a Clifford Davis Elementary student was dropped off at the wrong bus stop.The assigned bus driver was out that day, and a substitute driver was dispatched. The Executive Director has put action steps in place for substitute drivers to review and verify routes aligned with students before covering a route. FWISD is committed to further enhancing student safety. Starting in the 2025-2026 school year, the district will introduce a new program providing students with ID badges to use when boarding and exiting the bus. This system will link each student. The safety of our students is our top priority, and we are taking both immediate and long-term measures to prevent incidents like this from occurring in the future."
