A South Carolina mother is demanding answers after her 4-year-old son was left on a school bus and handed over to a stranger.
On December 5, Myeisha Marks was celebrating her birthday two hours away from home when she received a panicked call from her son's aunt, according to Count On 2 News.
Marks' 4-year-old son, Shamiar Smith Jr., who attends Aynor Elementary School, had not gotten off the school bus as expected. The school's "Tagged Child Program" is supposed to ensure the safe release of young children to designated adults, but in this case, critical steps were allegedly missed.
The bus driver initially claimed Smith was not on the bus, but later found him asleep under his coat in the middle of the vehicle. Instead of following protocol, the driver reportedly handed the child over to a stranger, who eventually brought him back to the school.
Marks said she felt sheer panic and feared her son had been kidnapped before learning he was safe.
"I was two hours away, and the first thing she said was 'Junior didn't get off the bus,'" Marks said. "I panicked, like, 'oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.' I just hung up the phone [and] called the school."
She later reviewed bus surveillance footage and filed a complaint, asserting that multiple procedural errors had occurred, including failure to check the child's identification tag and neglecting to follow proper drop-off procedures.
"If he would've checked the tag when he got on the bus, he would've known," Marks said. "So that's what I'm thinking, like, he didn't do his job from the beginning. He didn't see him, which, he was visible, and he gave him to a complete stranger. That's like, three or four different things that went wrong."
Horry County Schools confirmed that safety procedures, including the "Tagged Child Program," are under review.
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