For more than three hours Thursday afternoon, Holly Lauritzen says her 4-year-old son was on his school bus alone.
“He said it was so dark and cold and he was scared,” said Lauritzen.
Lauritzen’s son gets picked up for school just before noon everyday and dropped off at daycare just after 3 p.m. When he got to daycare Thursday, he told the babysitter he was hungry, because he never made it to school. Initially his mom didn’t believe him.
“He rides one of the short buses, it's not a long bus, it might have eight seats in it and I thought there's no way somebody forgot you on the school bus,” said Lauritzen.
But after checking with his teacher, she confirmed, he never made it to school.
“It scares me. I put all of my kids in their care and assuming that they're taking care of them and making sure that they're safe and it scares me now that none of them are safe,” said Lauritzen.
Her son is safe now, but Holly says she doesn’t want there to be a next time.
“I don't want it to happen to anybody else, what if next time they're not okay,” said Lauritzen.
News Eight reached out to the Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico Superintendent’s Office about the incident, but they had no comment.