One Homestead first-grader will never set foot on another school bus by himself. Now, he rides with his older sister. He, along with his mother, is too scared to takes trips to and from school alone.
After school, walking with her 6-year-old son, Xzavia Vaz is glad to have him close. This, after he didn't arrive at his bus stop after school Monday.
"He was not on the bus. He didn't get off, so I asked the bus driver – does she have Myles Watson on the bus. She looked at her list. His name was on the list, but he was not on the bus," Vaz said.
Vaz went to her son's school, Mandarin Lakes K-8 Academy in Homestead. He wasn't there either. Vaz later found out a school employee put the first-grader on the wrong bus home.
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"I said this is not my stop. Then, she said she can't turn around and I had to get off the bus and walk," 6-year-old Myles Watson said.
The school is practically in Myles' backyard, but he was dropped off about eight miles away.
"I was a little bit scared that it was going to be a lot of cars and motorcycles," Myles said about the busy road. "I was going to find my way home, cross the street, then I go where the airplanes look like the bad guy airplanes."
Myles was referring to Homestead Air Reserve – a landmark for him – something close to his school and his home. But before it came to that, a parent saw Myles standing alone on Campbell Drive.
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"She said when she saw him he looked lost," Vaz said. "He was frightened and she couldn't leave him standing there by himself."
More than 30 minutes of panic ended when Vaz was reunited with her son after his first day of school. It was also his last day of taking the bus by himself.
"I just want some kind of disciplinary action to be taken against the bus driver because this could happen to anybody," Vaz said. "Thank God I have my child back, but what about the next child?"
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The school district released a statement saying, "The school district has offered every possible assistance to the parent following this unfortunate occurrence, and we are interviewing all personnel involved to help us understand how it came about."
Vaz didn't get the name of the parent who found her son and brought him back to the school, but she wants to thank her – for what very well could have saved his life.
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Photo Credit: NBC 6 South Florida