Child With Autism Driven An Hour In Wrong Direction After Bus Route Mix Up In New Britain

Written and reported by WFSB 3TV Staffers Taylor Knight and Amanda Callahan

NEW BRITAIN, CT — There was frustration in New Britain after a mix-up with school bus routes in the first week of school.

A boy with autism was driven an hour in the wrong direction on his way home, leaving his mother in a panic.

“If it wasn’t for my baby's phone, I wouldn’t have known where he was because they did not know where my baby was,” said Somers McCray.

Her son Courtney got out of school at 2:45 p.m. last Friday. When he wasn’t home after more than an hour, she started to worry.

“He’s saying he’s in the car and saying he’s on his way but he’s not here. Like what is taking her so long where is her location,” she continued.

McCray called the bus company First Student.

They told her that the GPS tracking on the bus wasn’t working, so she took matters into her own hands.

“My son has an iPhone so I did the iPhone locator and that’s how I found out he was in Danbury,” she said.

McCray got police involved and eventually there was a plan to meet her son at a 7-Eleven in Southington.

“Courtney isn’t one of those kids who looks out the window and pays attention. He’s always looking down or looking into something because he always has to keep his mind going and distracted,” she stated.

She shared the story on her Facebook and found that a number of other families have been having similar issues.

“Everyone is saying how their kids got home at 7 o’clock at night our house. Some of their kids were just didn’t get picked up from school and something didn’t get picked up to go to school in the morning. This is a real disturbance to parents and kids at the end of the day,” she continued.

In response to the widespread frustration and alarming incidents, First Student says it is taking steps to fix the problems.

The New Britain school district also responded to the incident by sending out an update to families and confirming that different transportation is now being provided for Courtney.

But McCray says this isn’t enough especially because many of these incidents involve kids with special needs like her son.

“He just wanted to take a picture of the van that he was in. He called me to make sure he was at school. He called me when he got on the bus and then he called me when he got home. He was so frightened,” she said.

The district is now providing different transportation for Courtney that’s not operated by First Student. McCray says he had a smooth day today and she hopes that will continue.

>>>You can watch the video of this news story at WFSB 3 TV here.

(Editor's note: This story was written and reported by WFSB 3 TV staff and is reprinted on Patch with permission)