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Family of Oscar Jones, 10, speak of their anger after a taxi driver left him at the wrong school in West Malling

A young boy was found crying in the road by a passerby after being dropped off near the wrong school by his council arranged taxi driver.

Ten-year-old Oscar Jones, who attends Kent Health Needs Education Service Special Education School (KHNES) in West Malling, was left near a wooded area, close to Leybourne Chase School, some 200 metres away.

The good Samaritan walked with Oscar until they found his school, which he had only attended for three weeks at the time of the incident.

KCC has cancelled the contract with the firm. Stock image
KCC has cancelled the contract with the firm. Stock image

His father Ken says Oscar was left "traumatised" by the experience.

He told KentOnline: "What if someone else had found him? You can't think about it. It's shocking.

"Oscar said the driver had asked him where his school was, and he didn't know.

"He found the other school [Leybourne Chase] and Oscar walked down the road to check, but instead of waiting the taxi drove off.

"Taxi drivers we've spoken to who do school transport say they are paid to take children door to door.

"If they had done that, he would have realised he was at the wrong school and none of this would have happened."

Staff at KHNES contacted Oscar's mother Laura Jones to say he had been brought into school by a stranger.

The family has thanked the woman who found Oscar and brought him to safety.

They say his predicament was made worse by the fact he was new to KHNES who were helping him get used to attending school after a long absence due to glandular fever.

Kent County Council has investigated the incident, which happened in September, and produced the following report:

"We have spoken to the driver, he went to the wrong school and Oliver [sic] said he would walk around there, we have explained to the driver that this is not acceptable, the driver has been reprimanded, this has never happened before and we will ensure it will never happen again.

"It was entirely the driver's fault and we have made sure that he understands how dangerous this is and we have spoken to all drivers and made sure that they know that they never leave a child unattended for any reason."

A Kent County Council spokesman said: "We were very concerned to hear of a child being dropped off by taxi at the wrong school.

"As soon as the school made us aware of this we took appropriate action with the contractor, we began an investigation and were in contact with the family.

"The taxi company accepted this was a mistake by the driver and should not have happened, as a result we took action against the contractor and arranged for a different driver to be allocated to the service.

"We are of course sorry that the event took place and have written to the family to provide a copy of the investigation paperwork as requested."

KentOnline contacted West Malling Taxis but the company declined to comment.

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