Luke Keshane’s mother is just grateful he’s alive.
The five-year-old boy from the Saulteux First Nation was left locked in a bus garage for about seven hours Monday after he fell asleep during the trip to school.
“I’m just happy he’s alive. I’m very thankful that he’s alive,” his mother, Carolyn Moccasin, said.
Keshane was picked up by his school bus around 7:30 or 8 a.m. Monday, according to his mother. The bus driver dropped the kids off at school, but Keshane, who had fallen asleep, never got off the bus. The driver drove back to the bus garage, parked the bus with Luke still inside, left and locked the garage.
He wasn’t discovered until around 3 p.m. when another driver entered the garage, which isn’t heated, according to Moccasin.
“I was in shock. I said, ‘What’s going on there?’” she told CTV News. “‘How could you not know he was in school?’ I panicked and all these questions ran through my mind.”
Moccasin took her son to a doctor. He wasn’t physically hurt, but he was very upset, she said. He cried to her to never leave him again.
The mother said she isn’t happy with how the situation has been handled so far. Her son was put back on the bus for the 45-minute drive home after the incident, and the driver was handed a three-day suspension.
Moccasin wants to see new policies put in place and wants a formal apology.
The Chief of the Saulteux First Nation, Kenny Moccasin, said the band is taking the incident seriously.
“We don’t take this too lightly. Our priority is the safety of our children, to ensure that they make it to school and back home safe with parents,” the chief, who is also Keshane’s uncle, said.
The First Nation contracts the bus service out to a family that has been operating buses for more than 25 years, according to Chief Moccasin. A memo has been sent out to the drivers to do routine checks.
Saulteux First Nation is located in west-central Saskatchewan.
