Father says school bus dropped daughter two miles from home

ALBUQUERQUE—
Issac Ortega said he came way too close to losing his little girl on Monday afternoon. Eleven year-old Harley, a student at South Valley Academy, usually gets off the bus around 4:30pm. Her stop is a block from home, just south of Coors and Pajarito in the South Valley.

"Five o'clock rolled around, no word from anybody,” said Issac Ortega. He told ‘KOB 4' he tried calling the school and the APS transportation center, but they both close at 5pm. "Couldn't find her, we were freaking out, thinking what if she got abducted, what if she got hit by a car?” said Ortega.

Harley eventually got home around 6 p.m. and told her parents that the bus driver forced her and four or five other kids off the bus two miles from their normal stop. A crash on Coors had roads blocked off, so the driver took a different turn. Harley said she walked home on Isleta, a busy county road with no sidewalks, and says a man followed her, asking her to get in his car. "I was scared that someone was going to try taking me,” said the eleven year-old. “So I just didn't do anything and I just kept walking."

Ortega wants to see this driver answer for his actions. He says he let the school know about the incident, and called the bus company multiple times. South Valley Academy’s Executive Director told KOB 4 that he spoke to the APS Transportation department on the phone Tuesday, and the department is investigating. "If he was frustrated with the route or there were extra kids left on the bus, he should've stopped, called the parents, or had the kids call the parents,” said Ortega. "You can't do that, you can't neglect kids."

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/father-says-school-bus-dropped-daughter-two-miles-from-home/6223373/?cat=500