An urgent investigation has been launched after a disabled three-year-old child was left alone on a bus at a depot for three hours.
One senior councillor told The Courier it represented “a serious lapse in child protection procedures”.
Leeland Connor, who attends the city’s Frances Wright Nursery, is autistic, epileptic and suffers from severe developmental delay.
He was picked up from his home in Linlathen on a Dundee City Council-contracted bus at 12.10pm to be taken to nursery along with other pupils.
After making the drop off, the bus then travelled to a depot in Morgan Street, with Leeland — who is non-verbal — still on it.
He sat unattended until its return to the nursery to pick up the children at 3.30pm without anyone spotting him and apparently without his being reported as having failed to arrive at nursery.
Dundee City Council said it was dealing with the incident as a “matter of urgency”, with the nursery’s head teacher having already met with parents Michelle Johnstone, 30, and Michael Connor, 27, to apologise.
Labour’s education spokesman, Councillor Laurie Bidwell, said that an urgent investigation was well warranted.
Leeland’s mum said the family was only informed of the incident by the bus driver when the toddler was dropped back off at home at 4.10pm.
Michelle said: “My son is autistic, epileptic and has severe developmental delay and he gets picked up by a bus every day to take him to Frances Wright Nursery.
“They took all the other kids into the school and left him sitting on the bus. He was still on the bus when it came back to pick them all up.
“He will never get back on that bus again. He is non-verbal — he can’t even speak so how was he supposed to let anyone know he was still there?
“He could have taken a seizure, he could have been killed. I am raging, I am fuming – I have no idea how this could have happened.
“To find out that he was at Morgan Street depot makes me even more angry.
“Had I had left my own child unattended for that length of time then I would be charged with neglect.”
Dundee City Council said “immediate action” had already been taken.
“The family have met face to face with the head teacher, who has apologised to them on behalf of the council.
“We are working closely with the transport provider in a thorough investigation into the circumstances.
“Council officers will be contacting the family as soon as this is completed to discuss the findings with them.”
Councillor Bidwell said: “This was a very serious lapse in the Council’s duty of care to one of our youngest children at nursery.
“We need to know how it was that this child was left on the bus and how he was not missed when he did not turn up at the nursery.
“Clearly parents and carers and councillors, who are corporate parents, need to be reassured that such a serious lapse in child protection procedures will be avoided in the future.”
