Kansas school bus driver fired after forgetting kindergartener on board

A Kansas kindergartener was left on a school bus for nearly six hours before the driver found him trapped inside, according to a report.

The 5-year-old was sleeping in the back seat during the ride to school when the driver headed home and parked the bus in their driveway — and failed to check that the rows were clear before locking it up.

“How could that happen?” the boy’s enraged grandmother, Leta Meitl, told 12News.

“You count three getting off the bus. You count three getting on the bus. It’s not rocket science.”

According to Meitl, the young boy boarded the bus the morning of Oct. 28 and fell asleep sometime during the ride.

The Hoxie School District driver completed the route and drove home — where the boy woke up hours later, alone and locked inside the parked school bus.

“I cried. I just kept wondering what was going on in his little mind,” Meitl raged.

It would be six hours before the driver discovered the kindergartener was stuck on the bus.

Fortunately, the weather was mild that day, so Meitl’s grandson was spared from either heat exhaustion or threats of hypothermia.

She expressed disbelief that the driver failed to check the bus at the end of their shift — something she said should be a mandatory part of the job.

“It takes less than 10 seconds to walk to the back and back to the front of the bus,” she said.

The driver’s employment was terminated with the Hoxie School District the same day as the incident, minutes from a recent district board of education meeting confirm.

“On October 28, we learned that a student had been left on a school bus for a portion of the school day,” the district told 12News in a statement.

“Thankfully, the student was not harmed, and we are continuing to support the family.”