On January 22nd, 5-year-old Ibn Polk fell asleep on the school bus on his way to Linden Hill Elementary. Polk was then left on the bus for 7 hours during the school day. The bus driver reportedly never checked the bus for students after dropping them off at school, which is against safety regulations. Polk was left without food and reportedly urinated himself while on the bus. Although Polk had food packed in his lunch bag, he didn’t eat it because ‘it was against the bus rules’. Polk’s parents are outraged, his father saying, “What you want a dead child now? It was cold. It was freezing.”

The school usually calls home regarding absences, but the Polk family did not receive any notification of Ibn’s absence from school. An RCCSD representative, Pati Nash, said “Clearly that was a failure on our part. The mother and father should have been notified.” 

There is a district investigation underway into the incident.