Goleta Mom Demands Answers After Child Left On School Bus For Four Hours

A Goleta mom is demanding answers after her child with special needs was left alone on a school bus for four hours.

Four-year-old Emilio Garcia was born with a medical condition that caused brain damage.

He recently started riding the bus to summer school, which started on June 22, but his parents say they will drive him from now on.

On Monday, July 6, his mom, Mirna Ramirez, put him on the bus at 7:35 a.m.

He was heading to Kellogg School where he attends special needs classes twice a week.

But, that Monday, he never made it.

Ramirez said the driver delivered the other three kids to school, then drove to the bus yard at the Goleta Valley Community Center, parked the bus and left.

Emilio was still strapped in his seat.

“He stayed there the whole four hours and then when the bus driver came back to get the bus, that’s when she saw Emilio still on the bus,” Ramirez said.

While she was waiting for Emilio to arrive home around noon, she got a phone call from the Goleta Union School District informing her about what happened.

“I got there and Emilio was still on the bus and he was scared. He was crying. All I did was hug and kiss him,” Ramirez said.

Emilio was checked out by a paramedic and cleared to go home.

Superintendent William Banning said he is taking the incident seriously.

“We have protocols in place that should have avoided this event. There are expectations and lots of trainings that bus drivers have regarding how to check the bus and be sure that children aren’t on it at the end of the school day,” Banning said.

Banning won’t reveal if the bus driver has been disciplined or fired.

Ramirez said she is frustrated with how the district is handling the investigation.

“We want answers. We want to know what happened. Why did they forget my son? It was only four kids on the bus,” Ramirez said.

“The investigation isn’t complete. There hasn’t been anything we can say to her at this point. But we have been in communication with her regularly,” Banning said.

The district said it will release the outcome of the investigation to Ramirez once it is done.

Ramirez says she’s sharing Emilio’s story so this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“I’m doing this because I don’t want this to happen again to another child. At first, I didn’t want to say anything or make a big deal, but it’s a big deal,” Ramirez said.