NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Sarah Batista was waiting for her autistic son to come home from school Monday afternoon when she got a call that no mother ever wants to receive.
Batista said it was from the Durham Bus Company, which is responsible for bringing her 3-year-old to and from school in North Providence every day.
“They stated that they were at my door with my son and that nobody was answering,” Batista explained. “I ran downstairs and nobody was there.”
Batista realized the bus was at the wrong house and after directing them to the right location, she was stunned when a boy who wasn’t her son got off the bus.
“Out of shock, I said, ‘That’s not mine,’” she recalled. “Then the bus monitor … got another backpack, but the same child, and brought him back to me. So again, I said, ‘That’s not my child.’”
When her son finally got off the bus, Batista said she immediately noticed something was off.
“He had no jacket on, no backpack,” Batista said. “I had to ask them to get it. So, I took him off the bus and I just brought him inside. He didn’t seem like himself.”