2 young children left alone at bus stop in Fayette County, mom says

A mother in Fayette County said her two young children were dropped off alone at a bus stop in Point Marion with no one there to pick them up.

Katrina Bowens said her 7-year-old son with special needs and his 6-year-old sister were dropped off alone despite the Albert Gallatin Area School District's policy designed to prevent this from happening. Bowen said she got a frantic phone call from a neighbor who spotted her children walking near the roadway after getting off the bus.

She says the neighbor knew something was wrong because she's always at the stop waiting for her children.

According to the district's protocol, Bowen says, if nobody is at the stop, the driver is not allowed to let the child off the bus. The procedure requires the driver to loop back a second time, and if a parent still isn't there, they are instructed to take the child to Albert Gallatin High School, the district offices, or the STA bus garage.

She says the driver ignored every step of that protocol and should face consequences.

"He needs to be fired just as the other bus driver and the aide was fired, unfortunately, in the incident that happened last year," Bowens said.

This isn't the first time serious concerns have been raised involving the same district and bus company. In December 2024, a 5-year-old child was left alone on a school bus for roughly 90 minutes because the driver didn't check every seat at the end of the route.

Now, police are involved once again after what this mother calls another major breakdown in student safety.

"It's not OK," Bowens said. "They put my children in danger."

KDKA reached out to the superintendent, Christopher Pegg, on Thursday, who directed us to the district's transportation director. KDKA did not hear back on Thursday.