By Eric Williams

The Orange Leader

Loni Ham waits in the same place every day, for her son Noah to get home from school. But last Friday Noah wasn’t there.

”I wasn’t necessarily mad that he wasn’t on the bus,” said Ham. “Because my first thought was maybe he missed the bus and he was at the school.”

Instead, the 5- year-old got off at the Bridge City apartments, miles from his home and usual bus stop. Luckily Noah’s aunt, who lives at the apartments, noticed Noah as she was leaving to go to Port Arthur. Ham is unhappy Noah was allowed to get off in the wrong location.

“In those few hours, she’s [the bus driver] responsible for my kids,” said Ham. “So I was really upset.”

She doesn’t like to think of the potential danger the situation could have posed.

“What if my son wasn’t found,” said Ham. “He could have gotten curious. My son is very curious. He could have decided to wonder off and find his own way home and gotten hit by a car. Just something like that. To me it’s a big issue, and it’s not something I’m going to bypass.”

Bridge City ISD says they sympathize with Ms. Ham, and that they are working internally to make sure that something like this, never happens again.

Superintendent, Todd Lintzen also stated that the district has dealt with a high turnover rate with their bus drivers, and that they are working to develop more stability in that position. By doing this, the district can eliminate confusion over routes and student pick and drop off locations.