Mom upset after her son disappears from Jacksonville school for 3 hours

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Only Action News Jax is speaking to a local mom who is furious that her five-year-old son disappeared from school, and she said she wasn’t even told.

The school district blames this on the bus company, but that’s not sitting well with the mom either.

“I was frantic. I was crying, I was scared, I was hurt,” said Tiffany Ray.

That’s how Ray said she felt the moment she found out her son was missing from his school, St. Clair Evans Academy, for three-and-half hours.

“That’s crazy. It’s crazy to me, how do you lose, somebody’s child?”

She said she found out her son was missing from a neighbor when she got off work. That’s when she went to the school.

“It was due to a teacher there and the bus driver. The teacher put him on the bus. Left him and another child, 5-year-olds now, on the side of the street. I went up to the school, he told me he was missing, and they told me they found him at Subway,” said Ray.

Ray said her son should have never been on that bus in the first place because he goes to the after-school program call "Team-Up."

Action News Jax drove the mile-and-a-half distance from the school to the Subway Restaurant, where she said police found her son.

“They didn’t contact me. They have my number, they have my husband’s number,” said Ray.

Action News Jax reached out to Duval County Public Schools and received this statement that reads in part, “…this is unacceptable. DCPS expects that disciplinary actions, additional training and monitoring will take place by First Student.”

Another part of the statement says, “In partnership with our busing vendors, Duval County Public Schools has specific procedures and protocols to ensure the safe and accurate transport of our students. On Wednesday, Oct. 26., these procedures were not adhered to by First Student, the bus contractor,”

“The statement was basically blaming the bus driver, but I feel both of them are at fault, the teacher and the bus driver. I don’t know what should happen to them, I mean, I don’t want anybody to lose their job, but they need some training, help or something. I don’t want this happening again, especially to my child or anybody’s child,” said Ray.

We spoke with First Student Bus Services off camera. They said they are looking into what happened, but said they’re not completely at fault.

Cox Media Group