Justin Styer's parents knew that something had gone awry when his bus never made it to the stop where they were waiting at 3:25 Tuesday afternoon. With each passing minute, Justin Styer, Senior felt his panic level rising.
Justin, Sr. tells us, "About a half hour after he was supposed to be dropped off I called. I said, you know, 'Where's my son?' And they had no idea."
School officials quickly launched a search for the youngster. But it was another 40 minutes before Justin Styer and his wife got the call letting them know their son was found.
"He was asleep on the bus," said Styer. "And they were parked in the parking lot... they were done for the day. He was in the closed up bus on a hot summer day - no windows down... the bus was locked up."
The Styers took Justin to the Emergency Room where he was treated for mild dehydration.
Officials from the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit would not speak with Action News on camera, but the school's executive director sent us a statement saying, in part:
"The CLIU does not as a matter of practice share details of the results of internal investigations. However it does wish to note that the suggestion that the student was left unattended for over an hour appears at this stage of the investigation to be unsubstantiated."
But Justin, Sr. says the school seems to be missing the point. He says the real issue is how long his 3-year-old autistic son would've been on that bus had he not reported his son missing as quickly as he did.
"They were done for the day. They were ready to go home. The driver was ready to go home - everyone was ready to go home. And if I wouldn't have called, he would have been on the bus for God knows how long."
Justin Jr. is doing just fine. His parents are, however, still pretty rattled.
Action News tried finding out the name of the bus driver and if the driver claims to have inspected the bus at the end of the shift as mandated. Once again, school officials would not speak with us.
The Styers, meantime, say they're not sure yet if they plan on filing a lawsuit.
