Nonverbal 5-Year-Old Boy Goes Missing for Hours After Mistakenly Being Placed on School Bus, Says ‘Terrified’ Mom

A Texas mother is sharing her distress after her nonverbal 5-year-old son went missing when he was mistakenly placed on a school bus.

Kimberlee Gonzalez, of Kingsville, said she arrived at Jesus R. Perez Elementary on Thursday, Oct. 30, to pick up her children — only to discover that her son, Zayden, was nowhere to be found, according to local outlet Kris 6 News.

“I was terrified,” Gonzalez told the station. “The school started looking for him inside the school, all over campus, and came back out and said he was nowhere to be found.”

Officers from the Kingsville Police Department joined the search and reviewed surveillance footage. They later discovered that Zayden had been mistakenly placed on the wrong bus. The boy was found hours after school ended, asleep at the back of a bus parked near Gillett Intermediate School — more than two miles away from his elementary school.

Gonzalez shared several Facebook posts that day asking for help in locating her son. “Thank y’all everyone for the support — they found him asleep in the back of the bus,” she later wrote, adding that her son “isn’t a bus rider.”

According to Kris 6 News, an assistant principal informed Gonzalez that a substitute teacher had mixed up names, mistakenly believing Zayden was supposed to ride the bus rather than be picked up by car.

Because her son is nonverbal, Gonzalez said the mix-up could have led to tragedy. “He doesn’t talk — imagine if he would have been dropped off somewhere. Something could have happened to him. He could have been run over. Nowadays, there are so many things that could happen,” she said.

Kingsville Independent School District (ISD) Superintendent Dr. Luz Martinez described the incident as “deeply concerning” and said it “should not have happened.” She emphasized that “the safety of every student is our highest priority, and any lapse in our transportation procedures requires immediate action.”

“To immediately address this situation, we met with all principals and transportation staff to review expectations and reinforce safety procedures,” Martinez said in a statement to Kris 6 News. “Employee discipline has been administered where appropriate. We will continue deploying Central Office staff to support dismissal procedures at all elementary schools and will collaborate with campus principals and transportation staff to streamline dismissal procedures.”

Martinez also noted that this was not the first transportation-related issue the district had faced this school year. Planned changes include implementing a sibling-buddy system, assigning bus seating charts, issuing bus badges for student identification, and other new safeguards.

The publication reached out to an assistant principal at Jesus R. Perez Elementary, Kingsville ISD Superintendent Dr. Luz Martinez, and the Kingsville Police Department for further information but did not immediately receive a response. Gonzalez has also been contacted for additional comments.