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Toronto: Disabled student locked in school bus for six hours
Image of Wendy Mastache: Facebook

Toronto: Disabled student locked in school bus for six hours

India Blooms News Service | | 03 Feb 2017, 11:36 pm
Toronto, Feb. 3 (IBNS): A Toronto school bus driver has been fired after leaving a disabled student locked inside school bus for six hours last week, media reports said.

Wendy Mastache, suffering from autism and epilepsy, has difficulty in communicating.

"She's traumatized," Laura Mastache, the mother of student Wendy Mastache, 19, told CBC Toronto. "She doesn't want to get in the bus."

She has refused to return to school after that incident, said her mother.

Mastache demanded policy changes from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), after the School Board had issued a statement saying "this will not happen again."

"I was panicked," said Laura Mastache, her voice shaking. "What happened during those six hours? No one really knows," CBC News reports said.

Mastache had received a call that Wendy had not been in class all day.

The bus driver after realising the mistake brought the girl to school where she was seen getting off the bus by a teacher.

After Wendy arrived home, her mother questioned the bus driver.

But when she failed to get any response she went to school.

According to Mastache, after viewing security video the school officials confirmed her daughter did not enter the school that day.

But the other students gave a contradictory statement that she had been on the bus that morning.

In a statement, the TDSB said it's "aware of this situation" and finds it "completely unacceptable."

"Since it happened, the school has been working very closely with the student and her family to offer any supports we can and to reassure them that this will not happen again," CBCNews reports said.

"We have made clear that the driver is not to drive any school bus within the Toronto District School Board going forward," the TDSB statement said.

One of the posts on the facebook of Laura Mastache stated,

“Wendy, who has both autism and epilepsy, has been noticeably more reserved and withdrawn since the incident.”

(Reported by Asha Bajaj)

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