A Winnipeg mother is looking for answers after a school bus dropped off her four-year-son at the wrong school, where he then spent the day without his parent being notified.
“His day was definitely an adventure,” said Belhen Rojo.
The day started off normally. Her son Jacob was at daycare in the morning and got on the bus to be taken to school.
"Apparently there are two children with the same name. And the bus driver was going to make two stops. And the bus driver called out the name for the first child and both kids got off at the first stop,” said Rojo.
Jacob was dropped off at Mulvey School, which isn’t his school.
Staff at Mulvey School didn’t notice the error and instead welcomed him into the kindergarten class, where he spent the day.
Jacob’s mom wants to know why she never got a call telling her he wasn’t at his correct school.
“Essentially, my child was missing for an entire afternoon and the people that were responsible never noticed,” she said.
“It never should have happened. And we’re absolutely sorry that it did,” said Celia Caetano-Gomes, superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division.
She said staff at both schools failed to follow proper attendance and unexpected absence procedures that would have prevented this from happening.
"It should have been noticed right away, and the mother would have been contacted to say, ‘Are you bringing your child to school today? Is he ill? Is there a reason he's not here?’" she said.
“And again, we're very sorry that it happened. It shouldn't have happened, and it won't happen again."
Belhen Rojo said she did get an apology. It came after she went to the school on Wednesday to demand an explanation, said Rojo.
- with a report from Jon Hendricks
