Ryan Maldonado's son was supposed to be dropped off at Trafalgar Elementary Tuesday, but instead ended ended up almost 5 miles away at Del Prado Boulevard before the driver realized he forgot to drop him off.
"He seemed a little off when he got home yesterday," Ryan said of his son, Ryan Junior.
Ryan's dad was told by school officials that his son never got off the bus when it unloaded at Trafalgar.
"My son must have laid down in his seat or something."
District officials say Ryan Jr, was never left unsupervised during the ordeal, and as soon as the driver realized what happened, he turned around and brought Ryan back to school.
But his father is upset because he wasn't told about the incident until after school.
"Really more angry than anything, especially because my son can communicate, he can't tell my how it made him feel."
Ryan lives with autism, and rides a bus for special needs students, which upsets his dad even more considering there were only 9 other students on the bus.
"When you drop the students off at school, do a quick walk to make sure there is nothing left on the bus, whether it be book bags, lunches and especially kids."
Ryan says he's speaking out because he's worried if this happens again, the results could be much worse.
"What if they didn't catch their mistake before it was too late? What if they got off that bus and still didn't realize my son was on that bus? out here in the Florida heat, no ventilation, who knows we might have been getting a call from the morgue instead of the school."
Ryan Sr. says he hopes drivers on busses with special needs students take some extra time out to know the child and parents.
