St. Paul mother seeking answers following major bus mix-up

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A major school bus mix-up has a St. Paul mom fired up and looking for answers.
On Monday, Hindi Abdi went to pick up her 4- and 5-year-old children from Crossroads Elementary, but they were not there.
“When I showed up, they weren’t there,” Abdi said.
Panic set in when she found out they were on a bus.
“A bus home that we’ve never rode. I don’t even know the intersections to or discussed,” she said.
The Saint Paul School District says their system showed Monday that the kids were scheduled to start taking the bus and were dropped off at their assigned bus stop.
Abdi says the miscommunication put her children in danger and she was even more upset when she found out her son refused to get off at the strange stop.
She said both her kids were confused after being dropped off at the intersection of Sherburne Avenue and St Alabans Street. Her 5-year-old son saw a fire truck and walked with his sister to get help.
“We were so proud of him for taking the chance to be that brave child we know he is and take care of his sister,” Abdi said.
But she’s still frustrated that the bus driver did not listen to her son’s concerns about the location.
“My son was able to vocalize to an adult that this is incorrect, he was scared and that it was the wrong stop,” Abdi said. “For the driver to still tell him to get off without an adult present is unacceptable.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Saint Paul Public Schools said in part,
“Pre-K students can be dropped off without a parent present if they are with an older sibling. Kindergarteners do not need a parent present. In this instance, because the students did not want to get off the bus, the driver should have taken them to the next school on their route to arrange parent pickup or a transport home. Because this protocol was not followed, the driver has been removed. All drivers have been reminded about this important protocol.”
Abdi hopes her family’s story drives home change.
“That policy needs to be changed. A 6-year-old is not close to be old enough to take a child off the bus,” she said.