JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville family is outraged after they say their 5-year-old girl was placed on the wrong school bus and dropped off nearly two miles away from her regular bus stop.

The child is a student at KIPP Voice Academy Charter School in Brentwood and lives in Moncrief.

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Action News Jax’s Madison Foglio spoke with the child’s family and the woman who found her.

What seemed like an ordinary Tuesday almost turned into Joseph Kelly Sr.’s worst nightmare.

“Why did you leave my child there?” Kelly Sr. said.

Every day, Kelly picks up his five-year-old daughter Brielle at her bus stop between Avenue B and Butler Street in Moncrief, just like it says on the bus card attached to her backpack.

Kelly says the bus normally arrives between 3:50 and 4 pm. But when the bus pulled up on Tuesday, he said he knew something was wrong.

“Normally, she’ll be like the second or third kid getting off the bus,” Kelly said. “When I looked up and one of the kids was trying to signal me to tell me what the bus driver was actually trying to say because she was like ‘Oh no, they didn’t put her on the bus’ and so here I am cause I’m in panic mode.”

Kelly immediately called the school.

“I could never get a hold of anybody, and I called them like 2 or 3 or 4 times,” Kelly said.

Kelly already knows the pain of losing a child.

“This is the only thing that I have…of my late wife, she been gone along with my son, and it’s been 4 years now,” said Kelly.

Brielle was dropped off behind what used to be Lake Forest Elementary School on Kennard Street.

Her loved ones believe she got on the wrong bus. She was dropped off over two miles from her assigned bus stop.

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Thankfully, Stephanie Gary was driving by and noticed something was wrong.

“As I was going through slowly, I was stopped by a couple children, about 4th 5th grade, and they asked me was I her mother,” Gary said. “You can tell she was afraid; she didn’t know what was going on.”

A mother herself, Gary’s maternal instincts immediately kicked in. She posted on Facebook a picture she took of Brielle, saying she was lost and asking if anyone knew her parents.

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Through her post, Gary was able to connect with Brielle’s loved ones. She also called JSO, and ultimately, they reunited Brielle with her family.

“I was ecstatic!” Kelly said.

Kelly said the Assistant Principal did call him on the day Brielle went missing.

We reached out to KIPP for a statement on this. They said they are investigating the matter, and we are still waiting for a statement.

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