The first through third graders, ages 5 to 8, were supposed to be taken from their school in Robbins to an after-school program in Posen.
Instead, the children were left alone on a street corner in Harvey, three miles from where they were supposed to be dropped.
"I called the bus company, I informed her that the bus driver should not be driving my child or any other child," said mother Towanda Matthews. "And they need to let her go."
Leroy Mosby learned his child was not at the after-school program when he went to pick her up in Posen.
"She was crying so hard that she didn't know where she was…she was so scared," said Mosby. "They had to cross that busy street and everything."
District 143 1/2 Superintendent Gregory Wright says Paige Bus Enterprises told him a substitute bus driver left the children off at the wrong location.
"The driver was filling in for someone on a route that they were not familiar with," said Wright. "We're gonna put procedures in place to ensure that, when a kid gets off the bus, this kid is getting off where he or she should get off."
Attempts to reach the bus company for comment were unsuccessful.
