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New video shows Milwaukee girl left outside closed day care
A Milwaukee family is demanding answers after new video shows a 6-year-old girl stranded outside a closed day care when her school bus drove away.
MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee family is demanding answers after new video shows a 6-year-old girl stranded outside a closed day care when her bus drove away.
What we know:
Surveillance footage captured first-grader Mariana Jones ringing the doorbell repeatedly at Precious Blessings Learning Center on Monday, Oct. 13, after she was dropped off by a Safeway Transportation Services bus.
The center was closed for the federal holiday. Her family said it was a miscommunication, which left the first-grader stranded near the busy Fond du Lac Freeway.
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"I was ringing the doorbell like four or five times," Jones said.
The video shows the bus sitting at the corner for about 90 seconds before leaving. For nearly 10 minutes, Jones was left alone before a passerby stopped to help.
"I started crying," she said. "Everyone was just ignoring me. I was screaming, crying for my life."
Milwaukee girl left outside closed day care after bus driver drop-off
A 6-year-old Milwaukee girl says she feared for her life after being left outside a closed day care Monday afternoon, Oct. 13, by her bus driver.
What they're saying:
Her grandmother, Lucretia Workman, also a bus driver, said this never should have happened.
"[I’m] frustrated. She nervous. She don’t know what to do. She looking lost," Workman said. "Regardless of what happened, she should have never been dropped off and left. She’s 6 years old and she’s a little girl."
Milwaukee Public Schools agrees with her.
The school district confirmed its policy requires bus drivers to wait until a child is received by an adult at drop-off sites in the following statement:
"The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority.
When students are being dropped off at a child care site, our procedure for the bus driver is not to leave until someone has received the child at the drop off site.
We are grateful the student was found safely, and we are working to determine exactly what happened in this case.
We will work with the bus company to reinforce procedures and take all appropriate action moving forward."
Workman said she wants the driver terminated. "This bus driver shouldn’t be transporting anybody’s children because he broke a policy which was he abandoned a child at an address," she said.
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Safeway Transportation declined to comment.
What's next:
The family said they plan to file a formal complaint with MPS on Wednesday.
The Source: The information in this post was collected and produced by FOX6 News.