PORTLAND — The mother of a Portland pre-schooler says a bus driver dropped her son off at the wrong stop twice in the span of three weeks, leading her to lose her job for ducking out of work to track the boy down.
Nicole Jackson filed a $49,000 suit in Multnomah County Court Dec. 11 alleging Portland Public Schools and bus company First Student failed in their duties to protect her son, Titan. She also said the boy suffers nightmares, bouts of crying and that he often points out where he was left by the bus driver, who was not named in the suit.
Jackson claims noneconomic damages to the boy of about $20,000 and seeks damages for her lost employment of $29,000.
In her suit, Jackson says a First Student bus driver left Titan at the wrong stop on two different occasions 15 days apart.
The boy typically gets off at Northeast 80th Avenue and Siskiyou Street, just blocks away from Roseway Heights Middle School.
But Jackson said Titan was left somewhere else on Sept. 18.
She’s not sure where the boy was dropped off, according to the suit, although Jackson imagines the stop was “possibly 72 and Jonesmore, which is over one mile away from his designated bus stop” and without any adults nearby.
Titan’s babysitter was waiting for Titan at the 80th Avenue stop that afternoon and she called Jackson after the boy was a no-show.
The two women called the police after a brief search and officers found Titan at a nearby apartment complex about an hour and a half after he left school, according to the suit.
The babysitter quit over the episode, the suit alleges.
Three days later, Jackson met with district officials who said the boy should have been wearing a laminated tag that included his name, bus number and stop. Titan was not wearing his tag that day, according to the suit.
The boy was, however, wearing the laminated badge on Oct. 2 when his new babysitter was waiting at the corner of Northeast 81st Avenue and Siskiyou Street.
He was again a no-show and the babysitter called the school district. Transportation department officials confirmed the boy wasn’t on the bus and administrators called Jackson and the police.
Officers found the boy and delivered him to the babysitter’s house, according to the suit.
Jackson said she had to duck out of work to find her son both times he was dropped off at the wrong stop. She was also new on the job and in a probationary period, leading to her firing over the two absences, she said in the suit.
