Clarksville mom horrified after son did not get off school bus

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Clarksville mother of seven was terrified when her child didn’t get off the school bus Monday afternoon.

Thankfully, she was later able to locate her child. However, she’d now like to see changes on district buses.

Chasney Lyons-Beard said that she took matters into her own hands on Monday afternoon after her 5-year-old son, Adonis, didn’t get off the bus. Home surveillance video shared with News 2 showed the moment when her other children tried to tell the driver Adonis hadn’t gotten off.

Lyons-Beard said the driver reportedly told the children Adonis never got on the bus and drove off. Lyons-Beard then called the school and started to drive her son’s bus route.

“It was literally nobody but God that led me to the last street,” Lyons-Beard said. “But when I looked on the bus, you couldn’t see anyone on the bus but the bus driver, so I immediately started sobbing.”

Fortunately, Adonis was on the bus with the driver at a stop roughly a mile away. Lyons-Beard said that the bus driver told her that he did not have time to do a walk-through.

“He [Adonis] was panting when he got off the bus. His skin was very clammy from being hot. He was very sweaty,” Lyons-Beard added. “I can just only imagine — had I not stopped the bus, if God did not lead me to that bus stop — what the story could have been for today.”

Lyons-Beard said that she would like to see bus monitors placed on her son’s route. The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System told News 2 that the kindergartener was never left unattended on the bus. They added that Adonis got on at Woodlawn Elementary at 3:55 p.m., and was located less than 10 minutes after Lyons-Beard called.

Still, Lyons-Beard said that she worries about the remainder of the school year.

“I was fearful this morning of even sending my kids to school, fearful of the same thing happening again,” Lyons-Beard said. “My son did not want to get on the bus, but I reassured him that he’s okay and God’s got us.”

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