4-year-old is forgotten on Richland school bus

Published 9:00 pm Friday, January 7, 2005

RICHLAND – A 4-year-old special education pupil in the Richland School District was left on an empty school bus for almost two hours earlier this week.

The boy, Zachary Bagley, went unnoticed when students unloaded for their afternoon preschool class Tuesday at Jefferson Elementary School. He sat alone in the bus garage until drivers began leaving to take students home.

“There’s no excuse for this,” Superintendent Rich Semler said after the incident.

District spokesman Steve Aagaard said an investigation of the incident was completed and action was taken against those involved. He declined to comment further, citing the employees’ confidentiality.

The district requires its bus drivers to check up and down the aisles of the bus after each route is completed and pupils are let off.

But the boy was missed, and the bus was driven to the district’s transportation center. School officials had said the boy likely was sleeping when he was taken to the garage.

The boy’s mother, Rebecca Bagley, said she received a call from a school district employee who told her that Zachary had been left alone.

Zachary Bagley attends a preschool class three days a week at the elementary school.

Bagley said she was not upset with the bus aide or the driver, who apologized profusely later in the afternoon.