A Fort Worth ISD employee at Woodway Elementary put 6-year-old first-grader Adrianna on the wrong school bus Wednesday afternoon, setting off a frantic hour-long search by her mother that ended with a 911 call. The bus that should have carried Adrianna home to her southwest Fort Worth apartment complex arrived without her, and staff at the school could not immediately say which bus she had actually boarded.
Adrianna’s mother, Jaria Branch, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that she did not know where her daughter was for almost an hour after the bus meant to drop Adrianna off arrived without her aboard. Branch called Woodway Elementary once she realized Adrianna was missing, and when she couldn’t get clear answers, she called 911 to report her daughter missing. A Woodway employee had escorted Adrianna and another student, who lives in the same apartment complex, onto the wrong bus that Wednesday, and a Fort Worth ISD spokesperson later confirmed that a Woodway staff member was responsible for the mix-up.
Branch said the ordeal was “really scary,” and according to the same report, she disputed the district’s account of when the students actually arrived home. The bus in question left Woodway Elementary at 3:21 p.m., and the district said it dropped the two students off at home around 3:47 p.m. — later than the students’ regular drop-off time of approximately 3:31 p.m. Fort Worth ISD ultimately located Adrianna and the other student and routed them home.
A Tracker Suggestion That Fell Flat
As Branch tried to get information, a Woodway employee asked whether she had used the district’s bus tracker application, a suggestion the outlet reports frustrated her. Branch said staff could have instead referred to the bus card in Adrianna’s backpack that shows her assigned route, and per Branch, an employee hung up on her at one point while she sought information. She went to Woodway on Thursday to discuss the incident with administrators, and Woodway administrators apologized to her, though Branch said parents deserve answers and accountability…