CMS students, some nonverbal, dropped off by school bus more than three hours after pickup

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – Parents of students at Highland Renaissance Academy in northeast Charlotte are concerned for the safety of their children after a negative school bus experience.

“We don’t feel safe sending our kids to school it’s terrible,” CMS parent Natalie Johnson said.

Johnson said her 7-year-old son, Chase, takes a special bus through VC Limo to Highland Renaissance Academy with students in the Exceptional Children program, many of whom are nonverbal or have other disabilities.

“They’re normally home by 3:45 or 4 o’clock,” she said. “So by 4:30, 4:45 people are asking questions and everybody is on the phone. By the time 5:30 rolls around, basically everyone was calling the police.”

She said they couldn’t get ahold of anyone with VC Limo or CMS.

Chase said as the hours passed by, he got confused.

“I was kinda scared,” he said. “I thought they were never gonna drop me off until the next day.”

Chase said it was not the same driver he normally has. Instead, he said it was a man who picked up a woman at some point in the ride.

“The guy got out the van, he knocked on a woman’s door, she got in the van, and we drove around in circles,” he said.

Two other parents, with nonverbal children, shared their concerns with WBTV over the phone.

One mother said she chose to pick her child up from school Wednesday afternoon because she felt uneasy about the new driver who picked her child up in the morning.

In a statement a spokesperson for CMS told WBTV:

“We can confirm that CMS has discontinued our contract with the vendor. An investigation is still ongoing. We are committed to making sure every student has access to safe, reliable and secure transportation.”

CMS also confirmed they used VC Limo to transport students at other schools as well, when the “yellow buses are unable to provide the service for the students.”

This could be for a number of reasons including location, schedules, distance from the school or medical.

Johnson said it was not until 6:45 pm that her son returned home.

She said she confronted the driver, but did not get an explanation of why the route took so many hours. She also noticed there was an adult woman on the bus.

“My concern is the safety of the kids, I just don’t want this to happen anymore,” she said.

Johnson plans to drive her son to and from school on Monday, but worries for the other families who are unable to do so.

CMS told WBTV they are working on getting new transportation for these students.

WBTV called VC Limo and they declined to comment.

Related: CMS parent claims child was removed from school bus because it was overcrowded

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