CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – 6-year-old Connor was already having a rough day on Tuesday, his third day in first grade at Liberty Elementary School. He fell and scraped his knee on the way to the bus stop, and he was crying when he got on board.

On the drive to school, he fell asleep. But instead of waking up to get off the bus with everyone else, he woke up alone inside the bus. Everyone else was gone, including the driver, and he’d been left behind. Connor began crying and got out of the bus, his mother said. He wandered around yelling for help until a school employee heard him and took him to school, a full hour after the start of class.

“As soon as I found out, I had a breakdown at work,” Conner’s mom, Crystal Piti, told Clarksville Now. “The school principal was very apologetic, but they dropped the ball.”

One hour alone in bus

Piti said she helped Connor onto the bus at 8:15 a.m., and about 10 minutes later, she contacted the school office to ask that a teacher check on his scraped knee because of the fall. Apparently, the teacher never got that message.

At 8:35, classes started at Liberty Elementary, but Piti never received a phone call or text that her 6-year-old was absent.

Over an hour later, at 9:40, an hour after the bus was parked, Conner woke up. Piti said she was told Connor was able to get off the bus and yell for help. He was found by the maintenance worker, and he was able to tell the man his name and where he went to school. The worker took him to the school, which is right in front of the CMCSS bus parking transit station. At the school, the nurse gave him liquids and crackers, and the principal called Piti.

Bus safety policy wasn’t followed

Clarksville-Montgomery County School System spokesman Anthony Johnson told Clarksville Now that several procedures are in place to prevent what happened, but they weren’t followed. “The driver failed to do the thorough check required per CMCSS policy after every route,” Johnson said.

“The bus driver has been employed by CMCSS for three years without any prior safety incidents. The driver has been placed on alternative worksite, pending the outcome of the investigation by the Human Resources Department.”

In response to the incident, the school bus drivers are getting additional training.

“The CMCSS Transportation Department is working with its trainers and lead drivers to ensure all drivers receive reminders about the district’s safety policies and procedures and their responsibility to ensure no child is left unattended that they acknowledge after training,” Johnson said.

Leaving a student unattended on any CMCSS vehicle is considered a zero-tolerance offense, according to district documents.

NEWS TIPS: Do you have a local news tip? Email news@clarksvillenow.com or call us at 931-648-7720.

Every CMCSS bus has a Bus Scan Alert “Child Checker Alarm” system installed. It is supposed to activate at the end of each run and must be deactivated by the driver at the back of the bus, as they check the seats along the way. “Even if there is no alert, all drivers have a responsibility after each route to check the bus to ensure there are no students,” Johnson said.

The incident is still under investigation by CMCSS.

‘It could have been so much worse’

The initial lack of notice that her son was missing from class wasn’t the first lapse in communication between the school and Piti, who has lived in the same home in Dotsonville for seven years. She said she wasn’t notified until the day before school that her son had been rezoned from Woodlawn Elementary to Liberty Elementary. Both schools are off Dover Road in west Montgomery County.

After her son was found, she went to the school and picked him up. When he was initially found, he was distraught and crying, but by the time she got there, he was in good spirits, and he got back on the bus Wednesday morning, Piti said. A different driver was assigned the route.

Piti said she’s trying to be understanding. “I’m mad at the whole situation, but I’m not mad directly at anybody, including the bus driver,” she said. “I don’t wish for anybody to lose their jobs, but I think that this is a severe issue.”

The timing of this has been extremely difficult for Piti: She is approaching the one-year anniversary of the death of her 18-year-old daughter.

“It could have been so much worse, and it puts me back in that panic state,” she said. “And I’m trying my hardest to be thankful that it was a good outcome and not the worst.”

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Sign up for our free Clarksville Now app