No school bus passes Aden Bramwell without causing a frightened reaction from the 6-year old, his mother said.
"'Bad school bus. Bad school bus.' That's all he says now," said Sophia Bramwell, who claims her son is still traumatized months after he was left on a Broward County school bus for the entire day.
"You can't leave him alone. He is very afraid," she told NBC Miami.
More than two months after the incident at a Pembroke Pines bus lot, the emotional scars still linger on Aden Bramwell, who has been diagnosed with Autism.
Bus driver Thomas Mobley, 64, and his aide, Sarah Brown, 58, were arrested last month and charged with child neglect for allegedly forgetting the kindergartner on the bus May 23. The boy was discovered at the bus depot after five hours, authorities said.
He sleeps with his mother now. When she showers, he sits in the bathroom until she is done, Bramwell said.
But the boy is not the only one who still thinks about that day.
"I can remember my first question was, 'Is my child dead?'" Bramwell said. "I knew that's usually what happens. Thank God it's not one of the stories that end in a funeral."
Now she wants justice for her son and hopes to prevent other families from going through a similar ordeal.
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The family has contacted the Broward County School District notifying officials that they may file a lawsuit.
Bramwell said she knew Mobley, who had been driving her son to school for two months and called him "a gentleman," which made the incident even more painful.
"To me this is unbelievable. It hurts even more because it is someone you have met and talked to," she said. "It feels like a betrayal. He was responsible for your child. It’s a tragedy all around."
Last month, a 2-year-old boy died after it appeared he had been left in a hot day care center van in Homestead, Department of Children and Families officials said. Bramwell said she heard the report and it immediately took her back to the day she got the phone call about her son.
She said school and day care officials need to be more careful and need to stress to employees the importance of checking the bus to make sure no child is left behind.
"The excuses don't fly. Your job is to check," Bramwell said. "As a parent, you don't think it can happen to you. It can happen to anybody. It did to us."
