Local

Osceola County mom says daughter, 5, dropped off at wrong bus stop 1.5 miles from home

Tracy Riggle-Lyle was in a state of panic Tuesday after her 5-year-old daughter’s school bus showed up in rural Osceola County and the girl wasn’t on board.
Her daughter, Gracie, had gotten off at the wrong stop after leaving Hickory Tree Elementary and was left behind a mile and a half from her home, Riggle-Lyle said.
“It could have been a really bad outcome,” she said. “We were waiting for her at the bus stop and there was no Gracie on the bus.”
Gracie said when she realized she was in the wrong place, she was terrified.
“I was, like, going, ‘Where is my mom?’” she said. “I was scared, really nervous and mostly afraid.”
Fortunately, two other mothers and a different school bus driver stopped to help her get home safely, Riggle-Lyle said.
Riggle-Lyle said this was not the first issue her daughter has had with Osceola County school buses.
In September, Gracie fell asleep on the bus and the driver drove her back to the bus depot before realizing the girl had never gotten off, Riggle-Lyle said.
Officials with Osceola County Schools said the school took all the correct steps Tuesday for Gracie, who had recently enrolled in the district after several months away because of Hurricane Irma.
Gracie was given a bus pass, which says where her correct stop, district officials said.
The district’s director of transportation was investigating what went wrong Tuesday when Gracie was dropped off at the wrong stop.
While Gracie made it home unharmed, there was a real possibility that something could have happened to her, Riggle-Lyle said.
She hoped the school district would take the steps to keep something like this from happening to anyone again.
“I hope they come up with a better system for the school bus driver,” Riggle-Lyle said. “I hope that it’s a learning lesson and something that they pay attention to every day now.”