DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – A Decatur mother is upset after she says her 5-year-old daughter was left by herself at the wrong bus stop during Monday’s snowfall.

Amanda Hammer said she began waiting for her daughter, Drayah Howell, to be dropped off at her school bus stop outside their home at 25th and William Street at about 1:50 p.m. By 2:15, there was no sign of Drayah, and Hammer became worried.

"I was freaking out, I was crying, I was hoping she was OK,” Hammer told WAND. “Anything could have happened. She could have been kidnapped.”

Hammer called the school district to find out where her daughter’s bus was.

“They told me, the bus company, I needed to call them because after they leave the school, the bus company is responsible for them,” Hammer said.

Hammer was about to call the company, Alltown Bus Service, when she got a call from an unknown number, and heard her daughter’s voice at the other end.

"It's my daughter on the other line crying, saying the bus dropped her off somewhere,” Hammer said. “She didn't know where she was. She was lost and she needed me to come pick her up."

Drayah had been dropped off at the intersection of 26th and Prairie, about a 3-4 minute walk – for an adult – from where she was supposed to be dropped off at. New to the area, Drayah had no idea where she was or how to get home. Luckily, a Good Samaritan had found her, and gave her his phone so she could call her mother.

Hammer said she’s appalled by the incident.

"And I want something to be done about it,” Hammer said. “And so do other parents that are out here that it's happened to."

Those other parents include Iris Lewis-Beasley, also of Decatur, who says the same thing happened to her 5-year-old son Ilyjah on Oct. 23.

"Ilyjah made the bus driver aware… that was not his drop-off,” Lewis-Beasley said. “She still told him he needed to get off the bus anyway."

Even with other students telling the bus driver the stop was incorrect, Ilyjah was told to get off the bus. He did the roughly 15 minute walk home by himself.

"He honestly was terrified, he had terror in his heart,” Lewis-Beasley said. “And then to know, that somebody else's child went through the same thing. And to also know that nobody's being held accountable for it, it saddened me, and then it made me furious."

"Somebody needs to be held accountable,” said Hammer. “The driver, the bus company, to make sure these kids get to where they're going… Make sure your kids know your address and your phone number, because if I didn't teach mine, I don't know where she would be right now."

The Decatur Public School District responded to the matter, telling WAND:

“DPS is aware of the situation and we’re investigating what happened. We’re also working with Alltown to review standard processes to ensure the safety of our students at all times.”

WAND also reached out to Alltown Bus Service, but they declined to comment.