CLEVELAND — On the first day of school, for 58 minutes, Courtney Yancey and her husband had no clue where their 7-year-old daughter was.
Yancey told me her husband was supposed to pick their daughter up from Joseph M. Gallagher Elementary School on Monday.
"I was picking our other daughter up and he called me frantic, saying he couldn't find our daughter. He was asking staff members to help and the staff members just kept sending him to different doors. They sent him to the cafeteria, the gym, the office, but nobody would help," Yancey said.
Yancey then drove to the school herself to ask for help.
However, she said she was met with nonchalant attitudes from staff.
Yancey phoned Cleveland police to file a missing person's report. That's when a teacher overheard her and her husband's conversation, telling them he'd seen their daughter ushered on to a school bus.
With the help of that teacher, Yancey was able to track the route and asked her mother-in-law to head to one of the stops.
"As she was getting there the bus was letting her off and when my mother-in-law walked around, the bus driver said, oh, are you here for and said her name instead of making her tell them who she's here for. At that point it had been 58 minutes that nobody had their eyes on my child and nobody at the school seemed to care," Yancey said.
For nearly an hour, Yancey said she was hysterical and crying.
When she was finally reunited with her daughter, she said her heart broke because her daughter was visibly shaken up and told her, "I thought I'd never see you again. I thought I'd be lost forever."
I reached out to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District about the situation. A spokesperson told me, "We understand and share the family's concern regarding this incident. As parents and educators, nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our children. We sincerely apologize to the student and her family for the distress this situation caused."
Following a thorough review, we have identified the circumstances that led to this incident. Our records show that the student had been registered for afternoon bus service during the previous school year. Over the summer, the District attempted to contact the family to confirm whether transportation services would continue for the new school year. Because we were unable to reach the family, the existing transportation assignment remained in place at the start of the school year.
We have corrected the student's transportation status and are reviewing our procedures to strengthen safeguards and prevent similar situations in the future. The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority, and we are committed to earning and maintaining the trust of our families.
Yancey is adamant that her daughter has never ridden a school bus, though, so now she's questioning the district's records.
"She's never been on a bus," Yancey said. "He (CMSD transportation director) told his staff members, because she didn't have any transportation in the afternoon, to just put her on a bus. I asked how he was able to determine that because he didn't speak to me or my husband, and he said that he tried to call but he can't remember if it went to voicemail or if it just rang or if it was disconnected, but he did try is what he said."
She also told me she filled out paperwork in May, listing her daughter as a morning and afternoon pick up for the 2026-2027 school year.
"I don't understand where it comes from, and none of these answers are sufficient enough for me. It's not good enough," she said.
Yancey has since requested all documentation and bus surveillance pertaining to her daughter.
"I've asked for everything, and they said they're going to send it. I have yet to receive anything," Yancey said. "I'm sorry but your sorry isn't good enough. Like I get you're saying sorry, but we could be having a whole different conversation here. My child could be gone and you guys are just, 'Oh, I'm sorry.' It's not good enough. I feel like they're brushing it under the rug."
She blames a big part of the mix up on the newly implemented 'Building Brighter Futures' consolidation plan where 39 mergers and moves occurred prior to the new school year.
RELATED: The test begins: Will CMSD's consolidation plan work?
Yancey said, "The whole merging the schools was absolutely insane. The schools are circuses. I had multiple teachers walk up to us that day and said that it has been a circus all day long, that nobody knows what they're doing. There's so many kids in the school. Nobody knows what to do."
She believes the second issue at hand is how the transportation department is operating.
"If you have somebody that is in charge of transportation of all of these children, maybe they should have a little more background in it or take the extra steps to confirm that this is where these children are going.
You were in charge of thousands and thousands and thousands of children. You can't just decide, oh, we'll put them on a bus. That's not how life works. None of this is good enough for me," Yancey said.
She also wants the district to question the school's administration and how they treated her and her husband.
"The principle, the way he treated us. The staff members not helping my husband while he's looking for somebody. Like if I was there looking for her, would it had been different? Would you guys have helped me because I would've been louder and not taking your guys' answers and making you guys help me? Like why didn't he get the help that he needed? And then the way the principal dismissed us like it was no big deal," Yancey said.
Yancey has now removed her daughter from Joseph M. Gallagher and enrolled her in a different CMSD school.
