Child home after taking wrong bus
An unidentified toddler who apparently got onto the wrong bus Monday morning in the Kensington-Bailey neighborhood was reunited with her family Monday night shortly after area media outlets circulated the girl’s picture.
The 3-or 4-year-old girl was put on a school bus by her father Monday morning. He believed the bus was headed to the girl’s Head Start program. The bus, however, was destined for Poplar Academy at 100 Poplar Ave.
The girl “was immediately identified by administrators and teachers as not being a Poplar Academy student” after arriving at the school and was kept at the school for the duration of the day as school officials attempted to ascertain her identity, school officials said.
“The girl was well taken care of all day,” said Stefan Mychajliw, Buffalo Public Schools spokesman. “We had no idea who she was.”
School officials spent Monday morning with the girl, who was unable to communicate her name or other information to them, in hopes that another school marked her “absent” and that would help identify her.
Sometime before 6:30 p. m., a teacher recognized the girl’s picture in media reports, at about the same time her aunt called police to report she was missing, according to Mychajliw. The girl’s father waited for his daughter at her bus stop until about 5:30 p. m., at which time he traveled to her Head Start school, Mychajliw said.
The girl’s aunt picked the girl up and took her home, school officials said.
