An Oklahoma woman says her 5-year-old kindergartener was taking the school bus for the first time when he was dropped off at the wrong location. On TikTok, the mom, Kelly Mulholland, shared a video that showed her son walking up to the random house, ringing the doorbell, and crying, "“Will you help me find my mommy?”
Kelly described the situation as her "literal worst nightmare." She alleges that her son was with her boyfriend's daughter, who is also 5 years old, and they were supposed to get off the bus together, but they both got lost.
The bus driver reportedly did not check the tags on their backpacks.
On TikTok, Kelly explained that her son and her boyfriend's daughter had tags on their backpacks that the bus driver should've checked before letting the kids off the bus. She alleges that the driver did not check the tags or pay attention to where they got off.
The bus driver did not remember where they got off the bus.
Kelly said the bus was pretty late, though she noted that was not a big deal, especially considering the school year just started. What was a huge deal to her was the fact that her kids were not on the bus when she went to meet them. Even worse, the bus driver could not tell her where the kids were dropped off, she claimed.
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An older kid on the bus was able to help.
It was not the bus driver who was able to point Kelly in the right direction. After she described the kids, an older kid on the bus said the kids got off at the last stop. When Kelly asked where, the bus driver only offered vague directions with no street names, she said.
A man stopped and asked if she was looking for two kids.
Kelly rushed back to her car to get her phone and a man stopped next to her and asked if she was looking for two kids. He told her that he got a notification on his way home that kids rang his doorbell and were trying to talk to him through the Ring doorbell. Kelly hurried to his house but the kids were not there.
Neighbors helped her search for her kids.
The man and some other neighbors helped her search the area for her kids, knocking on doors and trying to figure out where they might be. Her boyfriend also attempted to contact the school but it was after 5 p.m. and the school was closed.
It was also about 105 degrees.
It was around 5 p.m. so they were dealing with rush hour traffic, and it was also extremely hot that day. Kelly also noted that the neighborhood they live in is not small.
She found them half a mile from home.
When she finally found the kids, she said they were half a mile from home and also half a mile from the house they got dropped off at. "So they literally walked at least half a mile in 105 degree heat and were wandering around for an hour trying to find somebody to help them," she said.
Kelly shared what she learned from the experience.
Luckily, Kelly's kids were found safe, but Kelly offered some advice to parents in case they ever run into a similar situation: "I'm not sharing this to scare anybody," Kelly said. "But I think it is a cautionary tale that even if you don't think it will happen to you, you need teach your kids what to do if it happens."
People in the comments were not happy.
"The crying 'Would you help me find my mommy' absolutely sent me into tears!" one person commented on TikTok. "The fear in his little voice."
Another called the situation "inexcusable," while another said that as a school bus driver, she knows that the way the bus driver behaved was against the rules.
The person wrote: "I’m a school bus driver. We are not allowed to let a kindergarten or 1st grade child off without a parent at the stop. I make a separate list per stop."
