Mom wants criminal charges brought against driver after 6-year-old left on school bus on Staten Island
NEW YORK -- A Staten Island mother wants answers after she says her young daughter was left behind on a school bus about an hour after she boarded it on her way to school.
CBS2's Nick Caloway spoke to the little girl and her mother on Wednesday.
"When my friends were not there, I felt a little bit sad," 6-year-old Jayde Carlsen said.
The little girl said she was on her way to school on May 27 when she fell asleep on the bus and woke up alone.
The bus was parked near Mason Avenue and Quintard Street, about a mile from her school, Public School 39.
The kindergartener said she grabbed her bag and escaped the bus through the rear door.
READ MORE: 4-year-old reunited with mother in Brooklyn after getting on wrong school bus
Ashley Paris had just dropped her own child off at a nearby school when she spotted little Jayde screaming for help.
"She ran up to my car and said, 'Please don't leave me like everybody else,'" Paris said.
So the good Samaritan said she brought the girl home hungry and traumatized by being abandoned on the bus.
Understandably, her mom was livid.
"I called the bus driver, cursed him out. Everything under the sun came out of my mouth," Jenna Carlsen said.
Jenna Carlsen said the bus driver told her the girl must have fallen asleep on the floor and spent a little over an hour on the bus, which is operated by Island Charter.
In the company's parking lot, each bus Caloway saw Wednesday had a sign indicating it had been checked for sleeping children.
Jenna Carlsen said that clearly didn't happen on her daughter's bus.
"How do you not check a school bus? These are babies," she said.
She said her daughter is now afraid to ride the school bus.
The city's Department of Education told CBS2 in a statement, "The safety and wellbeing of all of our students, in school and out of school, is our absolute top priority. Anything less is unacceptable."
The bus driver and the attendant were both suspended, pending an investigation.
NYPD officials said the incident is under investigation. The little girl's mom said she wants the bus driver to face criminal charges.
Workers on site at Island Charter did not have any comment for CBS2.
