Autistic third-grader reportedly spends hour alone on Albany school bus | OregonLive.com

Autistic third-grader reportedly spends hour alone on Albany school bus | OregonLive.com

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Shane Dixon Kavanaugh | The Oregonian By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh | The Oregonian
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on January 08, 2014 at 8:10 PM, updated January 08, 2014 at 8:30 PM
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An Albany mother is fuming after a special needs bus driver apparently failed to drop her autistic child off at school, leaving the 9-year-old locked alone in the bus.

Lyfe Ellefson-Hamar spent nearly an hour inside an empty bus garage Tuesday before an employee with the Greater Albany Public School District finally tracked him down, according to a district spokesman.

"It's a parent's worst nightmare," said Ashlee Ellefson, whose son is a third-grader at the Timber Ridge School. "Nobody should have to think their child is gone."

The harrowing morning started like most others, with Ellefson and Lyfe walking out to his bus and the boy grabbing the second seat from the front row, she said.

Ellefson then buckled Lyfe into his seat and kissed him goodbye, she said.

The bus left at 8:27 a.m., the time it normally departs.

At about 10 a.m., Ellefson received a call from Timber Ridge, asking her if Lyfe was coming to school that day. At first she was completely confused.

"Then I was absolutely panicked," she said.

District employees began frantically searching for the boy. They found him about 15 minutes later in the district's empty bus garage. He was still wearing his seat belt.

The driver had failed to check for students before he left the bus, said Jim Haggart, a school district spokesman. The driver has been placed on administrative leave while school officials investigate the incident, Haggart said.

"We, as a school district, were wrong in this one," Haggart said. "We're sorry"

Ellefson is not ready to forgive the snafu.

"It was a terrifying experience," she said. "It felt like an eternity."
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh