Child misplaced on Livonia bus; 2nd child in same week

Livonia Public Schools District under fire for 2nd case of child misplaced on school bus in 1 week

LIVONIA, Mich. – Earlier this week, Bernard Constantine received a call that still makes his heart skip.

It was Wednesday afternoon and his 6-year-old son was missing.

"When you get a phone call that no one knows where your child is, it's automatic panic," he said.

The 1st grader at Livonia's Randolph Elementary was supposed to go to latchkey after school. Instead, his teacher accidentally put him on a school bus headed home. At one point, no one knew where little Bernard was.

"It was somewhere between latchkey and the school office, and putting him on the bus, and no one knew where he was at," his father said.

The Livonia Public Schools District says the 6-year-old was missing for less than 10 minutes. However, Constantine says it was longer than that.

"Maybe 20 minutes, 30 minutes," he said.

This is the second reported incident involving a misplaced child this week in the Livonia school district. On Tuesday, a 7-year-old special needs student was left alone on a school bus for more than 2 hours.

The Constantines were so upset by what happened to their child and with the way that the district handled it that they have pulled him out of the district.

"It kind of makes him scared of school now," said his father. "He's supposed to be happy and like going to school."

Constantine believes the district needs to take steps to prevent something such as this from happening again.

Local 4 spoke to the superintendent on Friday who said in this case the process they have in place worked in locating the child. The superintendent said the child was never in danger and they were able to get him back to school.


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