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A little boy with Down's Syndrome was locked on a council's school bus for six hours - after teachers forgot to check he'd got off. Reuben Wilson, nine, from Chew Magna, Bristol, was strapped into his seat, and only discovered when the driver came back from his lunchbreak.

His mother Sharon, 45, a lecturer claims her son – who cannot speak and communicates using sign language - is now frightened to step on the bus. She said: 'The night after it happened Reuben signed to me, "Bus, big wait, Reuben sad mummy". The thought of Reuben sat there, literally abandoned, for hours on end has given me sleepless nights.

'Since the incident Reuben has become really clingy. I feel so angry and upset. I just can't understand how he was left sat on the bus for so long and why no one checked he'd got off.'

The nightmare journey began when shortly before Christmas, Mrs Wilson waved her son off on the bus at 7.45am as usual on the hour-long trip to Fosse Way special education school in Bristol.

'When Reuben first began taking the bus to school eight months ago, I was really worried. He's such a sweet adorable and trusting little boy. He can't speak and can only use Makaton gestures and signs. 'But after a few weeks I relaxed and there has never been any problem before.'

The first sign anything was wrong was around an hour after Reuben should have got to school.

She says: 'I was at work when I received a generic text message from the school saying they noted Reuben wasn't there today. But as he had been off from school the day before, I thought it related to that. I didn't query it as obviously he'd gone off to school fine.

'A carer on the bus is supposed to check everyone is off, a teacher is supposed to tick everyone off on the register and the driver is supposed to check there is no one on the bus too. The last thing I expected was that all of these checks hadn't been done and Reuben had been left on the bus. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

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