Kylee Swimer is a student at Donnelsville Elementary, 150 E. Main St. in Donnelsville. After school she was supposed to get on a shuttle to Park Layne Elementary, 12355 Dille Road in New Carlisle, where her mother usually picks her up.
But she got on the wrong bus and ended up at New Carlisle Elementary, 1203 Kennison Ave. in New Carlisle.
“By the time I was home, I was in tears and my mom was, too,” Kylee said. “They need to put bus tags on little kids’ book bags so they don’t get lost like me.”
Staff members at New Carlisle Elementary realized the girl was at the wrong school when she arrived, then alerted her mother, Michelle Swimer. Tecumseh then bused Kylee back to Park Layne where her mother was waiting.
Michelle Swimer said during the time her daughter was on the wrong bus, staff members at Donnelsville and Park Layne Elementary couldn’t tell her where her daughter was.
The district didn’t lose track of her, Tecumseh Superintendent Brad Martin said.
“We never did not know where that child was,” he said.
Michelle Swimer called the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and was planning to file a missing persons report, but her daughter was returned before deputies arrived.
Kylee said she didn’t see teachers out with the buses when she got on the wrong one, just a teacher holding the school door open and bus drivers.
But Martin said at least eight to 10 teachers are outside the school every afternoon.
Michelle Swimer said she wants to see the school use bus tags to identify which children should be on which bus.
The district is considering bus tags, Martin said, but currently it allows multiple drop off points for students. If the schools went to a bus tag system, it could no longer provide that service for its students.
Martin told Swimer at a school board meeting Tuesday night that he sympathizes with her concerns and that the busing schedule should continue to get smoother and smoother.
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