A Calcasieu Parish school bus driver who earlier this month left a 3-year-old child on a bus alone for more than six hours has been terminated, a Calcasieu school official said Monday.

The driver, who has not been publicly identified, picked up Darren St. Romain and his twin brother around 7 a.m. on Jan. 16 to bring them to J.D. Clifton Elementary School’s Head Start.

Darren’s mother, Yessenia Williams, said the boy was later found around 2 p.m., alone and still on the bus, which the driver parked at S.J. Welch Middle School after dropping off the other children at school. Head Start Director Lisa Causey, who declined to comment, called Williams after Darren had been found, telling her she needed to come to the school. Williams said she was told by Causey and a bus coordinator the toddler had either fallen asleep on the bus or crawled under a seat when the children were being dropped off in the morning.

“When she said my son was on a bus I thought it was like an hour … when she said all day I just burst out crying,” Williams said. “When a kid’s missing, most schools call and I feel like they should have that system now that this incident happened.”

Darren, who has sickle-cell anemia, is often in and out of school because of his illness. Williams speculated that his teacher did not report him absent because of this. She noted her son spent the day on the bus in 40-degree temperatures with nothing to eat or drink.

“The protocol we use was in place and this would not have happened if the protocol had been followed,” Superintendent Wayne Savoy said. “What (policies) we had in place are as good as we could have had them.”

Assistant Superintendent Gary Anderson said bus drivers are supposed to check the bus to make sure no one is left behind after students are dropped off. “This should never have happened and the student should never have been left on the bus,” he said.

As a result of this incident, buses to and from Head Start were suspended for a few days until the incident was investigated and a new driver was found. Anderson said Head Start school bus drivers must have a special certification through the school to transport students. He said the bus driver has been replaced and buses are running again.

Williams said she plans to allow her children to continue riding the bus because of the new driver and because administrators assured her drivers would be more careful about checking for students.

The Calcasieu Parish School Board is investigating what happened when a 3-year-old student from J.D. Clifton Head Start was left on a school bus for around seven hours on Wednesday. (Rick Hickman / American Press)