Mom says young son wrongly put on bus, picked up by stranger

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A Pike Township mother is calling it the most terrifying 20 minutes of her life. It was her drive after receiving a call that her 5-year-old son had been wrongly put on a school bus, dropped off in the rain, and picked up by a stranger.

LaDonna Wattley's 5-year-old son may be the smallest kid in kindergarten but don't tell him that.

"He lives to ride the bus home because that means he's a big boy and mommy doesn't allow him to," said Wattley.

He's not allowed because he goes to Guion Creek Elementary School's after-school program.

"My phone rang and it was the elementary school and they said, 'Somebody just called and they said that your son is sitting on the porch and there's nobody to let him in,' and I said, 'That's impossible because my son goes to after-school care.'"

What LaDonna quickly learned was that her son's substitute teacher didn't check the bus list, put him on a bus, and the bus driver then dropped the pint-sized boy off alone.

"I'm on the interstate, screaming, laying on the gas," said Wattley.

A stranger saw the little boy sitting on the front porch alone, in the rain. She asked him if his mom was home. When he said no, she took him to her house and called the school.

"If it wasn't her who stopped and asked that, you know, today would've been a lot different because I could've been looking for him or found him and it wouldn't have been good."

It was the scare of her life that LaDonna Wattley now hopes will lead to change.

24-Hour News 8 reached out to Pike Township Schools but our calls were not returned.

Wattley says she was assured policies will be changed but she says the following day, three other Pike parents told her the same thing happened to their kids years ago.

She says she's on a mission to make sure her little boy was the last.