Hendry County school bus drops child at wrong stop, mom speaks out

A four-year-old girl in Hendry County was mistakenly let off her school bus nearly 20 minutes from her home. The child, Aria McKenzie, was found after a neighbor took her in upon realizing she was lost.

Lex Holligan, Aria's mother, said she was initially told by the school district that her daughter was on a late bus when she didn’t arrive at her usual stop.

Minutes later, Holligan received a call informing her that Aria was scared and crying, blocks away from their home.

"They won't let her off without me," Holligan said.

Holligan explained that when the bus arrived at the usual stop, her daughter was not there.

"I got a phone call saying, 'Hey, I might I think your daughter at my house, maybe she got on the wrong bus'. I'm like, oh, no, can't be my daughter because they're not gonna let her off the bus without me," Holligan said.

Aria was let off at the wrong stop, surrounded by open fields and unfamiliar houses.

"She could be lost. It's canals. It's like animals, people, you know, cars," Holligan said.

Aria got off at 10th Street and Arkansas Avenue, an 18-minute walk from her usual stop at 12th Street and Florida Avenue. Another student on the bus took Aria to their home, and their parents called around to find Holligan.

"It was a nightmare. It really was, and it bothered me, and it still bothers me. Now," Holligan said. "I took a picture, and I hate to see my baby like that, like she was hard down, crying, and her eyes were so small, tears, I don't, I hate to see that."

Aria did not return to the Clewiston Early Learning Center the following day. The incident has left her frightened of taking the bus again.

"She keeps talking about it. 'I don't want to ride the bus. They left me in the streets,'" Holligan said. "I can show you on her name tag. It got Florida and 12th Street on it, so it says where she needs to go every day, and they have to scan her name tag."

Holligan mentioned that the school district informed her that Aria's card was never scanned on Monday.

"Hendry County, they need to do better when it comes to these kids and these buses and these routes," Holligan said.

WINK News reached out to the Hendry County School District multiple times for comment, but received no response. Holligan confirmed that a police report was filed regarding the incident.