VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.- On Monday, Shawnalita Wilson took her 5-year-old daughter to school.
But, this was not her usual routine. Her daughter usually takes the bus to school every morning.
That all changed Friday morning when Wilson got a call from Woodstock Elementary that would make her lose faith in the transportation system.
“I received an automated call from the services at school saying my child was marked absent after an hour and a half after I got her on the bus," says Wilson.
Wilson says her daughter fell asleep on the bus and when she woke up she was in a Walmart parking lot - still on board the bus, all by herself.
“Thank goodness she woke up and thought to try and get help off the bus. It wasn’t even the bus driver that saw her, it was employees going into work that heard her crying and knocking on the door," says Wilson.
Panicked, shaken, and full of questions - Wilson rushed to Walmart to get her daughter.
“Pulling into Walmart, I saw the bus and then I saw a cop there. I started freaking out, and the cop told me not to approach the bus because he could see that I was distraught. As soon as I saw her, I fell on my knees and I hugged her," says Wilson.
The Virginia Beach School District says the bus driver resigned immediately after the incident on Friday.
But, for Wilson, that's not enough. She set up a petition to get school aides on buses in hopes to avoid something like this from happening again.
“My kids are my lifeline. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to them. That’s the only thing I could think that something happened to her," says Wilson.
Wilson says she will continue to take her daughter to school until she sees a change in the school transportation system.
