Kids Are All Right: 'Missing' School Bus Stirs Anxiety For Parents At Franklin Lakes Dropoffs

Parents in one Bergen County neighborhood got a scare when nearly an hour passed without their children being dropped off from middle school at the end of the day.

Anxiety ensues, outcome good.
Photo Credit: *xololounge @morguefile.com/p/700089*

Jerry DeMarco

09/08/2022 11:02 a.m.

All was well, however.

Franklin Lakes police got calls from several anxious Franklin Avenue Middle School parents on Peach Tree Lane shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, Capt. Mark McCombs said.

Officers quickly found the bus in the area of Huron Road, a little less than a mile away, the captain said.

The kids were all right, McCombs said.

It turned out school officials had given the driver a new route that students and their parents weren't aware of, he said.

“This resulted in the bus traversing the stops in a different order and anxious juveniles being dropped off out of what they considered to be the normal sequence,” McCombs said.

Police helped reunite the children with their parents, the captain said. School administrators were also notified, he said.

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