Spruce Grove girl, 5, dropped off at wrong bus stop; left alone in the cold
It's the call a parent never wants to get — but on Nov. 17, while Andy Ruffell was at work, he got a call saying his five-year-old daughter didn't get off at her bus stop.
"My initial reaction was, 'How can this happen?'" Ruffell said.
His daughter, Chloe, is a kindergarten student at Broxton Park School in Spruce Grove, Alta., about 34 kilometres west of Edmonton. She takes the bus to her twice-weekly classes, which are on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Ruffell said his daughter has been riding the same school bus since the beginning of the year — which leads him to believe the bus driver should have known who Chloe was. She also had a pass around her neck displaying her stop, which is a home daycare.
Instead, the driver stopped at the Ruffell home. No one was there.
Ruffell said his daughter told the bus driver it was the wrong stop, but that she was told to get off anyway.
"I just can't believe that some adult would have that lack of common sense," Ruffell said. "Especially someone who is in charge of the welfare of a whole bunch of kids."
Ruffell said his daughter stood outside in chilly -3 C crying for at least 20 minutes.
He said Chloe approached a stranger, a woman, who was on the way from her house to her car. The woman told Chloe that she would drop her off at her babysitter's home.
'Streaming with tears'
When Chloe didn't arrive at the home daycare after school, the owner called Chloe's mother, Amber, who came to the home and then called the Parkland County Transportation department to ask about her daughter's whereabouts.
Chloe's mother was assured the bus driver would come around again and make sure the little girl was dropped off at the right spot.
To the surprise of Chloe's mother and the daycare owner, Chloe made it there. The five-year-old knew the way and gave directions to the woman driving her there.
"When Amber saw Chloe, she thought she'd been beaten up, because her face was so beet red, just streaming with tears," Ruffell said.
"She was completely just traumatized for 20 minutes by herself. This is a kid who we don't let her walk alone in a parking lot without holding our hands."
Parkland School Division investigating
The Parkland School Division website boasts the operation of one of the largest student transportation systems in the province. More than 8,750 students are bused every day using a fleet of over 162 contracted buses.
Ruffell said he was scheduled to meet Friday afternoon with Dennis Simcoe, Parkland School Division's director of transportation services.
When contacted by CBC News, Simcoe was unavailable for comment. But Jordi Weidman, a spokesperson for Parkland School Division, said matters such as this one are taken very seriously, and that a full investigation is already underway.
"In an instance like this, an investigation would involve talking to the parents face to face, talking to the bus driver, or drivers involved," he said.
Weidman said all students have a pass, which must be scanned when they get on and off buses to prevent incidents like this from happening. He said this process will be investigated as a result of this incident.
"We'd look into every aspect to make sure everyone gets to where they need to, and to try and avoid the rare instances where this occurs," he said.
For the Ruffell family, the whole incident has been traumatizing.
Ruffell said his daughter is scared of getting on the bus now, and he's not sure how they're going to convince her otherwise as she returns to kindergarten next week.
"I can't believe it happened, I can't believe that the bus driver had a complete lack of compassion and or common sense towards the situation," he said.
"She has so much anxiety with this school bus now, which is a complete and utter shame."
min.dhariwal@cbc.ca
