Family Seeks Answers After 6-Year-Old Dropped At Wrong Bus Stop
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A Pittsburgh family is waiting for answers after a 6-year-old girl was dropped off at the wrong bus stop.
Jersey Eleam of Homewood has Leukemia. She's in remission and doctors have just cleared her to go back to school at Faison Elementary after being home-schooled for a year and undergoing extensive treatments at Children's Hospital.
The first-grader told Kym Gable, "I just felt excited and that I was going to make new friends, and I did."
But that joy turned into fear and confusion after school. The bus driver dropped her off at the wrong intersection.
It's nearly half-a-mile from where she was supposed to be. Her mother was waiting for her at the corner of North Lang and Mt. Vernon, but Jersey didn't show up there.
"They didn't drop me off where I was supposed to be," said Jersey.
Her mom, Stephanie Eleam, said, "I just felt so helpless. I'm not in a vehicle and I don't have transportation to get from A to B to see if she was here, there, to see where she was at. At that time, the school didn't even know."
Stephanie says she frantically called the school and 911. Meanwhile, her friend, Dorian Asque, saw Jersey walking alone in the cold after crossing a busy street.
"It's 20 degrees," said Esque. "I'm like Jersey, what are you doing outside by yourself? Where's your mom? Her bus stop was supposed to be down the street."
"Does it take somebody's kid to get hurt?" said Stephanie. "And in her situation, she could have been really hurt, sick, anything."
Jersey knows her mom's cell phone number, so she called it from Dorian's house.
Stephanie says she's proud of her daughter and relieved she eventually made it home.
"it's a blessing, all the way around," she said.
Stephanie said she made phone calls to the school and the bus company, which is contracted by the district. KDKA reached out to a spokeswoman from Pittsburgh Public Schools, who said she's checking on the matter.
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