4-year-old girl left outside wrong school by bus driver in Newark

NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- A preschooler was dropped off by her bus driver at the wrong school, a middle school in New Jersey, and then left there in the cold.

Ranique Woodson holds her daughter Ra'Kaiya Harris a lot closer now, having lived through a parents' nightmare.

"Mad? I started crying. Had to calm down because what if she would have gotten kidnapped? Snatched up!" Woodson said.

Early Tuesday morning at their home in Newark, Ranique put her 4-year-old daughter on the bus to pre-school, in the hands she says of a new bus company and a new driver and aid.

Ra'Kaiya was to be taken to Leaguers Day Care in Newark.

"And the last time I would have seen her was when she got on the bus," Woodson said.

It wasn't until she took a break at work and saw on her cell phone 30 voicemail messages frantically trying to reach her.

"Newark Public Schools calling me, her school is calling me. And I just started busting out in tears," Woodson said.

She says the new driver took Ra'Kaiya to the wrong school, North Star Academy, about 12 to 15 blocks from their home and left her on that bitterly cold day.

"He put her on the sidewalk and drove off," Woodson said.

Ranique says there is video from security cameras showing Ra'Kaiya being dropped off.

Fortunately, school officials noticed Ra' Kaiya.

"Took her into the school, fed her, gave her activities to do until they found who the student was," Woodson said.

"I was scared," Ra'Kaiya said.

Newark School officials who claim their top priority is the safe transportation of students by contract bus vendors also say, "We are working with Ra'Kaiya Harris' family to investigate and correct this matter with the bus company."

Ranique may take even further action.

"I need answers. I need charges filed, negligence, child endangerment. You left a 4-year-old to fend for herself on the street," Woodson said.