Special-needs child left on Brevard County school bus, family says

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A Titusville family told Channel 9's Melonie Holt that they're upset their special-needs child was left on a school bus Thursday afternoon.

Eyewitness News found out the 11-year-old girl fell asleep and ended up at a school bus compound.

Two adults were on the bus with the Apollo Elementary special-needs students. Only one of the adults realized that the student was still on board.

“Anything could have happened between here and there, especially if she's left on the bus by herself and she's special needs. She can't talk, so she can't say, ‘Hey, I'm on this bus,'” her mother, Syble Brown, said.

Brown's daughter, Trashawna, was born with Down syndrome.

“If you're not being careful or watching these special-needs kids, you shouldn't be transporting them. You've got an important job, you can't be careless or whatever the case is,” Brown said.

A spokesperson for Brevard County public schools told Eyewitness News that the incident was a misunderstanding.

An instructional assistant who rides with the bus driver and then spends the day at school got off the bus at Apollo to assist another student. When the instructional assistant returned to help Trashawna, the bus was gone, school officials said.

Because Trashawna was lying down, the driver didn't realize that anyone was still on the bus, school officials said.

Transportation officials were notified. They estimated that Trashawna was unsupervised at the compound for about 10 minutes, school officials said.

“It's a handful of kids and two people. So it shouldn't have happened,” Brown said.

Brown said she would welcome an opportunity to sit down with transportation officials to discuss what happened and how to avoid it from happening again in the future.

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