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'My heart just sank': Parents left in fear after five-year-old daughter doesn't get off school bus

The girl was found more than an hour later, still on the bus and asleep in the seat behind the driver.

WAYLAND, Mich. — Two Wayland parents had a terrifying evening on Tuesday after their five-year-old daughter went missing after her first day of school at Baker Elementary.

Austin Wooten and Xondria Edinger's daughter, Braelynn, has a specific bus schedule.

"Half the week, she rides the bus. The other half the week, she doesn't ride the bus," says Wooten.

Tuesday was a day she needed to take the bus to her dad's house. The two parents made sure school officials knew Braelynn had to be on the bus, telling someone when they dropped her off in the morning.

"We figured nothing of it, you know, sent her on her way for the first day of school," says Wooten.

The trip from the school to Wooten's home is barely a three minute drive.

Wooten waited outside as the bus pulled down the street.

"Everyone got off the bus, but there was no, you know, little girl," says Edinger.

"My heart just sank," says Wooten.

The bus driver told Wooten his daughter had been put on a different bus. He figured maybe she was brought to Edinger's house instead, but after driving there, they still couldn't find her.

"I just started thinking the worst," he says. "I started shaking. I just went into an instant panic."

Wayland Union School District's office originally told Wooten that Braelynn had gotten off the bus and went home with an adult, leading the parents to fear she was with a stranger.

"When neither one of us parents had her, and she wasn't there, that's not okay," says Wooten.

Along with help from school officials and police, the parents began to search the area.

"We did a whole perimeter of that and knocked on everyone's doors," says Edinger. "Like, I was asking, 'have you seen a little girl anywhere?'"

Soon after, they got a call.

Braelynn was found still on the bus, she had fallen asleep in the seat directly behind the driver. The parents wish that more had been done by the driver to look for her.

"You know, just five seconds," says Wooten. "You know, one seat."

The parents say they'll be picking their daughter up from school themselves for the foreseeable future.

"I don't feel comfortable putting her back on the bus," says Wooten.

When asked about the incident, Wayland Union School's superintendent Tim Reeves said, in part, the "safety of all Wayland Union students is a priority to us."

Braelynn's parents say while they are upset the school district allowed this to happen, they appreciate the district's speedy effort to help find their daughter.

    

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