Mother wants answers after 5-year-old dropped off at wrong bus stop

By Olivia González-Britt

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    SANTA MARIA, California (KSBY) — Amaya Medina was excited for her first day riding the school bus to summer school, but a phone call after classes were over sent the girl’s mother into a panic.

“I called my mom because she was the one who was picking her up,” said Carmen Medina, “and then she’s just like, ‘Hey, you know, Amaya is not on the bus’.”

Amaya was supposed to be picked up by her grandmother at Roberto and Dr. Francisco Jimenez Elementary School in Santa Maria, but the kindergartner was instead dropped off more than four miles away at Arellanes Elementary, according to Medina.

Medina says a good Samaritan found her daughter wandering around a Tanglewood neighborhood and called the school using the number on Amaya’s lanyard.

“You don’t know how I am feeling until it happens to your kids,” Medina said. “Then you can tell me you know how it’s feeling. You know, it’s like, God forbid something bad would have happened.”

Medina has been seeking answers from the Santa Maria-Bonita School District ever since.

“I hear a lot of, ‘I’m sorry, but I followed protocol,’ you know, ‘I’m sorry, but we did what we were supposed to do’.”

KSBY reached out to the school district to find out what led to Amaya being let off at the wrong bus stop and whether any changes in protocol are being made.

While the district did not answer those or many other questions, KSBY was given the following statement that reads in part:

This unfortunate situation facilitated a review of internal practices for transporting our youngest of our very precious students. The safety and well-being of our students are our highest priorities, and we are confident in the improved ability of our transportation system to safely get students to school and back home.

The school District and its contracted bus transportation company have already made the necessary adjustments to ensure this does not happen again. We appreciate the trust parents place in us and are committed to maintaining that trust through continuous improvement.

Santa Maria-Bonita School District Medina is still questioning the district.

“Why did it take my daughter getting lost for you to implement this? And they’re like, ‘Oh, you know, we’re still trying to work out the kinks’,” Medina said about her conversation with the district. “It’s summer school and, like, summer school is not a new concept.”

The school bus company, First Student, said in a statement to KSBY that the company is actively working in partnership with the district to review and address the incident to ensure it does not happen again.

Medina says her daughter no longer wants to ride the bus because she’s afraid of getting lost again.

With summer school ending soon, Medina has decided to take her daughter to and from school herself.

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