DC student left alone on school bus for over an hour before being discovered

WASHINGTON - It is any parent's worst nightmare. You think your child is at school only to receive a phone call saying they are not. Then you find out your little one was left on a school bus - a bus that reportedly had a bus driver and an adult attendant on board. Yet somehow, they both missed the mark.

"I thought I was going to die, and at first, I thought it was a dream but it wasn't," said 7-year-old Antonio Grinage.

The young boy got on the bus at around 7:30 a.m. on Monday. His mother, Arnise Grinage, said she received a phone call more than three hours later saying Antonio was left on the bus and had just arrived to school.

A Good Samaritan walked Antonio to the Children's Guild DC Public Charter School after he woke up startled inside the bus.

Antonio said he pried the doors open to get out. He was discovered walking around in a parking lot.

"He could have passed away or anything if he hadn't woke up and pried the bus open," said the boy's mother. "He could have been kidnapped or anything. I was just scared because once he leaves my care, he is in their care, and I'm thinking he is at school and he is safe. What if he had wandered off? They didn't know."

Fred Lewis of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education emailed FOX 5 a statement saying:

"The OSSE Department of Transportation is currently investigating an incident that occurred this morning. We take student safety very seriously and immediately investigate all incidents. Because this is an open investigation, we cannot expound on the matter."

Arnise Grinage said this is not the first incident she has had with Antonio's bus driver. She said on Friday, the bus came almost 30 minutes early to pick Antonio up.

She complained about it, and with this incident happening on Monday, she is concerned Antonio was left on the bus on purpose.