MSAD 72 special needs child goes missing for a few hours on way to school

FRYEBURG, Maine — An MSAD 72 elementary school student went missing for a few hours Wednesday while being transported to an out of district placement school by a contracted van driver.

The superintendent said the situation is under investigation and is concerning to him.

An MSAD 72 parent, who wishes to remain anonymous, made a post on a private local Facebook page complaining that her special needs child went missing for six hours on the way to her out-of-district placement school in the Augusta, Maine, area. The post has been widely shared. 

"Yesterday my elementary age daughter was picked up by a back-up driver and was missing for six hours. When she did not arrive at her out of district school placement they called me and informed her home district of Fryeburg," said the parent. "A police report was filed (by myself, MSAD 72 and her out of district placement) and an hour later a missing child investigation started."

She continued, "The Oxford county sheriff was swift in action and I'm grateful for their support and she has returned home. But very concerning the district allowed students to be transported home by this service while aware of what was ongoing. What occurred to my child is horrific but to allow children to continue to be transported while this is ongoing is negligent and I feel obliged to inform."

MSAD 72 Superintendent Jay Robinson spoke to the Sun Thursday. He said the child arrived in Monmouth around noon. 

"When we received information that the child had not arrived at the destination, that's when we started making phone calls to the company providing the transportation to the school, to the police eventually," said Robinson. "It's a terrible situation to be in when you think that a child is supposed to be arriving at a given destination and that doesn't happen. You're, of course, concerned, and you're going to investigate that."

The District subcontacted the driver from First Student. Robinson said it's "distressing" when the van is unaccounted for, for over an hour and the driver can't be reached by phone.

"When you get to a point where you have to involve the police to find the vehicle that's transporting one of your children, that's not a good situation," said Robinson, adding the school board has been notified. 

Robinson said he has no  information that would indicate anything nefarious happened. 

The parent told the Sun the regular driver cancelled, who was scheduled to pick up her daughter at 6:20 a.m. The backup driver arrived at 7:40 a.m. and she was supposed to arrive at a school in Monmouth at 9:10 a.m.

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The mother shared an email exchange in which she told school officials the driver and her daughter were apparently found in Lewiston, which is not on the way to school but is by the driver's home, which she believes to be a Maine refugee center.

She showed the Sun a photo of his license and the address is for the Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services in Lewiston. 

She says may be he got lost and went home for help. She said the driver spoke no English. 

First Student in an email said: “At First Student, there is nothing more important than the safety of the students we transport. Unfortunately, a substitute driver lost GPS and cell phone connection which resulted in a loss of communication.”

“The First Alt vehicle was stuck behind heavy traffic on the highway for several hours and unable to place a call to dispatch. We deeply regret the concern this caused.”

The child's mother said her daughter arrived around 1 p.m. She said police started a missing person search around 11 a.m. She said it's unclear to her when they were found in Lewiston. 

On Thursday afternoon, Robinson released a statement in reaction to the social media post.

"With respect to transportation of students, we only utilize drivers once we have done thorough background checks. While our preference is to always hire our own drivers, when we don't have drivers available to drive students who need out-of-district programming, we have to use all available options to maintain continuity of programming for students," said Robinson. "This is not done to save money, as using our own drivers is more cost-effective; it is done because we do not have available applicants for open positions and it is vitally important to make sure students have access to their programming. Any company that we work with to provide transportation also has to meet the same level of background checks that we use with our own employees." 

Oxford County Sheriff Major Dana Thompson told the Sun in an email Thursday,  "There is an active ongoing investigation at this time, therefore I have nothing to release about it at this time."