Blue Ridge Elementary School student dropped off at wrong bus stop

The 5-year-old’s father waited for him on Mulberry Road.

However, the boy was dropped off on Mexico Gravel Road.

The parents of a Blue Ridge Elementary School student say he was dropped off at the wrong stop Monday, though they do not blame school officials for the mix-up.

The boy knocked on a random door after getting off the bus on Mexico Gravel Road. The woman who answered the door knew the family and called the boy’s grandmother.

His mother, Meela Walker, said she was terrified when her son did not get off the bus, especially when other students said he was dropped off a long time ago.

Walker said Blue Ridge Elementary School did “everything right.”

Columbia Public Schools uses Student Transportation of America for its bus services. Each bus driver is given a bus route with drop-off points and a list of students riding the bus, Columbia Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark said.

She said kindergarten and first grade students wear stickers labeled with their bus number and bus stop.

Walker said she spoke with the bus driver who initially denied the boy rode the bus.

“First she said she didn’t have anyone on her bus with that name,” Walker said. “Then she said that he got off the bus with his sister, my son is the only child, he has no sisters,”

After reviewing bus video, a supervisor from STA told Walker her son was wearing his sticker and the bus driver did not follow proper protocol when she dropped him off.

Walker said STA is removing the bus driver from her son’s route.

ABC 17 News was sent a statement from STA over email apologizing to the child and family for the driver’s error. ABC 17 News was denied comment from the local STA.