SAN ANTONIO – Thousands of kids get on a school bus to get home every afternoon. But a 4-year-old Judson pre-K student wasn't so lucky on Monday after being put on the wrong bus.
The boy's parents said the hour they spent looking for their little one was full of panic and a whole lot of questions.
Ayden Pacheco's father, Alex Pacheco, was waiting at Ayden's bus stop.
"When the bus pulled up and specifically told me that my son had not boarded the bus -- their first assumption was my son didn't board the bus because something happened at school," Pacheco said.
Ayden's mother went to the school and was told Ayden was put on a bus.
Transportation officials put out a call to all bus drivers, but Ayden was nowhere to be found
"They were a little confused.They didn't know who to contact," Ayden's mom said. "And I was just there waiting like, and time was just passing and I kept thinking, 'Where is he?'"
Judson district officials said that a Head Start employee had put Ayden on the wrong bus. Ayden got off the bus with other students at an apartment complex more than 7 miles away from where he was supposed to be.
"Ayden said that the bus driver told him, 'Come over here, because this is your stop,' instead of checking his tag and asking, 'Why is this child not wanting to get off the bus.'"
Ayden told his father that after he started crying, two girls took him to an after school program, where an officer contacted the father.
"As soon as I read the text I started crying, because a million things were going through my mind," Pacheco said.
District officials said because of the incident they're going to start color-coding the backpacks of pre-K students to clearly show that those students need a parent or a guardian to pick them up.
KSAT 12 was told that the district disciplines employees privately and according to district policy, but the bus driver has not been terminated.