Kennewick boy found in bus after school

KENNEWICK — A first-grader at Amistad Elementary School in Kennewick was found sleeping on a district bus Monday after going missing from the school on his first day.

The 6-year-old boy, who is autistic and doesn't speak, apparently got on the bus after class let out for the day.

He was reported missing around 3:30 p.m. when his mother came to pick him up and couldn't find him.

About 30 Kennewick police officers, detectives and administrators immediately started looking for the boy, Sgt. Brian Swartswalter said. They searched the area around the school and checked each room in the school to make sure he wasn't inside, he said.

Officers checked the homes of a couple of classmates who people suspected he may have walked home with. At one point they thought he'd been found alone in the parking lot at Lampson Stadium.

An alert was sent to bus drivers, and the boy was found sleeping on one of the district buses, said Lorraine Cooper, district spokeswoman.

He was reunited with his mother at 4:20 p.m. when the bus returned to the school.

The boy's mother had planned to meet him in front of the school after class, and she apparently didn't see him follow another child onto the bus, Cooper said.

The school wasn't told he needed special assistance when he was registered, she said.

The district will review what happened to see if anything could have been done to prevent it, Cooper said.

Kennewick police also briefly searched for two Eastgate Elementary students who didn't show up for school Monday, Swartswalter said.

The brothers, 7 and 9, live nearby and walk to school. Their father drove by and saw them in the empty irrigation canal that runs behind the school, Swartswalter said.

When the father turned around and parked, he saw their backpacks on the ground near the canal and thought they hurried off to school and left them behind, Swartswalter said.

When the father got to the school, he learned they hadn't shown up.

A few minutes after police were called, detectives found the boys playing in a park about 100 yards down the canal, Swartswalter said.