A 5-year-old Albany child was missing for nearly 3 hours Monday after boarding a bus at Sherwood Acres Elementary.
The kindergartner wasn't even supposed to ride a bus which has his family asking a lot of questions tonight.
I sat down with the child's grandfather who still doesn't know how his grandchild ended up at daycare across town.
Wallace Jordan says Monday afternoon was one filled with fear.
"The person who was supposed to pick him up called me and said he wasn't there," said Wallace Jordan, Grandfather.
That was around 2:15 when a family member was to pickup 5-year-old Javien Colbert at Sherwood Acres Elementary. When they couldn't find him, Jordan called around, but no one could account for the child.
"I went to the school myself. I got in the school and talked with his teacher who said he was there, he was in the back. She escorted to the back. His grandmother called me and I told her he was in back. No problem," said Jordan.
But little Javien wasn't there. Turned out he boarded a van at the school that took him across town to Little Learners Daycare on North Jefferson Street. A van he never should've boarded.
"It was several breaches: Two other teachers, the van driver, and the daycare," said Jordan.
"Our procedure for riding our transportation system for being picked up by cars or daycare is so that we have a process to help locate children is they become misplaced," said R.D. Harter, DCSS Spokesperson.
School surveillance cameras followed Javien from the classroom and outside the school. They couldn't see the vehicle he boarded but determined he didn't board a school bus.
"Our next step was to find out what daycare center and other programs are authorized pick up children from our schools," Harter.
It was after 5 o'clock when police found Javien at the daycare center. Jordan says his grandson had a tag attached to his shirt saying he was a rider to be picked up by family. He now questions the system.
"They got something good in place, but it don't work if you don't got diligent people working it. So that was 4 breaches. He got past 4 adults," said Jordan.
While Javien was found safe and sound, Jordan says he wants some form of action taken so this doesn't happen to another child.
And the school system says Javien got in the van line with a classmate. We talked to Little Learners Daycare Tuesday, they say they are working with Sherwood Acres Elementary and other schools to better insure the children who board their vehicles are supposed to be there.
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