A Montgomery County school bus driver left a student with special needs alone alongside a road miles away from her destination Monday.
Ashley Lewis arrived at her grandparents’ home Tuesday with a new driver and attendant Tuesday.
“I was very upset,” said Ashley’s grandmother, Barbara Lewis. “We couldn't find her, and then when we did -- what she had gone through.”
Ashley was let off the bus on Hawkins Creamery Road Monday despite the lack of a parent or guardian to meet her.
She walked lost and alone along the road as cars drove by her. One driver put down his window and yelled at her, asking what she was doing there alone.
Finally, Ashley’s father, who was driving around frantically searching, found her.
“That kind of scared me to death,” Ashley said.
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Students with special needs shouldn’t be dropped off if there isn't a responsible adult present to meet them, a spokesman for Montgomery County Public Schools said.
"That did not happen in this case, and that is unacceptable,” Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Dana Tofig said. “We have apologized to the family, and the driver will face appropriate disciplinary action."
“I want to make sure that they look into it, figure out where the problem is, figure out what they need to do to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else,” said Ashley’s mother, Halley Lewis.
Barbara Lewis said God watched over her granddaughter and kept her safe.
