It seemed like a normal Friday morning when Monica Aguirre's kids hopped on the bus to go to school.
But this mother's heart dropped when her 12-year-old daughter called her in a panic.
"She was freaking out, she was crying,” said Monica. “I could barely understand what she was saying, she didn't know how to tell me how to get there."
Monica's daughter apparently loaded a bus that only took children to the elementary school and not the middle school, which according to Monica, has never happened before.
Monica said the bus driver told her daughter he would drop her off, but instead, he drove her to another road where two middle school students were waiting to be picked up.
It was then Monica said the driver told her daughter to get off the bus, and wait for the middle school bus with the other children.
"It's not an area to be just dropping off a kid without any concern," said Monica.
But the middle school bus never came.
The father of the other children waiting with Monica’s daughter decided to take his children to school himself, but Monica said her daughter was taught to never ride in the car with strangers.
When the other children left, Monica's daughter stood on the side of the road. She was alone, terrified, and unable to determine her whereabouts to her mom.
"Finally we found her by herself on the side of the road," said Monica.
After drying her daughter’s tears, Monica immediately called the Harlingen school bus depot to figure out how this could happen to her little girl.
She says they apologized and claimed they were short on staff that day, confusing the bus routes.
But for this protective mother, their excuses were not enough .
"I was even told by the supervisor that he couldn't understand how that bus driver could have done that, because it was one of his best bus drivers,” said Monica. “I was flabbergasted, I was like ok, if this is one of your best bus drivers doing this, I can only imagine what your worst bus driver is doing."
The mom wants HCISD administrators to address the issue, and assure her that this will never happen again.
"I know how it is when you're short staff and you have to work with what you have, but there's never an excuse to put a child's life in danger like that, and that's exactly what they did," said Monica.
Action 4 News contacted Harlingen CISD, but we have yet to receive a response from the district about the incident.
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