HOXIE, Kan. (KWCH/Gray News ) – A Kansas family is left searching for answers after a 5-year-old boy was left alone on his school bus for several hours.

The Hoxie School District confirmed the incident occurred on Oct. 28.

Even though it’s been a few weeks, Leta Meitl, the 5-year-old’s grandmother, still has unanswered questions.

Meitl said her grandson, who is in kindergarten, boarded the bus that morning and fell asleep during the ride. The bus driver, unaware that the child did not get off the bus, drove home after completing the route.

“How could that happen?” Meitl said. “You expect three (children) to get off the bus. You count three who go on the bus. It’s not rocket science.”

The kindergartener woke up hours later in the bus driver’s driveway.

Meitl said she cried over the situation.

“I just wondered what was going on in his little mind,” she said.

Six hours later, the bus driver discovered that the boy was still on the bus.

Meitl said she was relieved the weather was mild that day. She was worried that her grandson could have suffered heat exhaustion or frostbite if the temperatures had been extreme.

She said bus drivers should always check their buses at the end of the day and at the end of their shifts.

“It takes less than 10 seconds to go backwards and back to the front of the bus,” Meitl said.

In a statement released to KWCH on Thursday, the Hoxie School District confirmed that the bus driver is no longer employed by the district.

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