ANKENY — A couple from Ankeny is suing Durham School Services, claiming that their five-year-old son with Down syndrome was kept on his school bus for nearly three hours.
According to court documents, Nathon and Andrea Keith say that their son, who has Down syndrome, was kept on his school bus without food, water or the ability to speak to his parents.
His parents say that their son rode the special needs bus to school and back to Generation Next daycare in Ankeny around 3:45 p.m. to 4 p.m. every day, but did not arrive until 5:40 p.m. on May 28, 2019.
Nathon Keith says on May 28, he arrived to the daycare at 5 p.m. to pick up his son but the teacher told him that his son had never arrived.
According to the documents, Nathon then called his wife and his son’s usual bus driver to locate their son. The documents say the boy’s usual bus driver let Nathon know he was out sick that day and would try to locate where the five-year-old boy was. When Nathon still had no information on his son’s whereabouts at around 5:30 p.m., he contacted police from the daycare.
The boy did not arrive until 5:40 p.m. According to the documents, the bus driver said something around the effect of “it had been a crazy day.”
Durham School Services is being sued for alleged negligence and one count of false imprisonment.