By LEONARD GRAY

LULING – A shocker of a coincidence left two 5-year-old Luling boys, headed for the same Luling kindergarten, asleep on separate school buses on the same morning. Both drivers have been arrested for misdemeanor child desertion and suspended from active duty.

On Oct. 1, two school buses headed for A.A. Songy Kindergarten Center in Luling and dropped off their passengers.

One driver with 14 years of experience, Dianne Hills, 53, of 286 Magnolia Ridge Road in Boutte, parked her bus afterward near her home at 9:50 a.m. At 2:10 p.m., Hills picked up a busload of Hahnville High School students, who discovered the boy sleeping on a seat. He was taken to St. Charles Parish Hospital in Luling, examined and pronounced to be in good shape.

That same morning, driver Annette G. Gray, 40, of 109 Flowerwood Court in Luling, also picked up her passengers bound for A.A. Songy Kindergarten and later parked her bus on Ellis Lane in Boutte. She has been driving buses for six years.

At 9:20 a.m., another 5-year-old boy was found walking near the busy intersection of U.S. Highway 90 and Paul Maillard Road, trying to make his way home. Deputies questioned the boy and learned he had fallen asleep on Gray’s bus and awoke to find himself alone, so he managed to exit the bus and began walking. He was likewise examined at the hospital and found to be in good shape.

Gray’s passenger, Justin Line, of Luling, now wants to bring water to school with him every day, according to his mother. The child is now worried that he’ll again be left aboard, to be thirsty all day.

“He didn’t think it was his stop,” Justin’s grandmother, Carolyn Line, explained, adding the child was not asleep the entire day.

Rather, Justin realized he had been locked on board, without food or water, and finally settled down for a nap while he hoped for rescue.

“I was devastated,” Justin’s mother, Reygan Line, said. “Mainly, he was scared. But I’m so glad he didn’t get out of the bus.”

The mother of the other child could not be reached in time to comment for this article.

For more than a year, the school district has been testing an electronic “child checkmate” system. The system sounds a buzzer when the driver exits the vehicle, which must be shut off quickly, or the bus’s horn will sound.

The system is a reminder to bus drivers to check the bus and also would awaken a sleeping child.

When these incidents occurred on Oct. 1, school system spokesperson Rochelle Touchard said, the district ordered 20 more, which arrived Oct. 9. The first batch will go to A.A. Songy buses, and more are being ordered to have all 133 buses in the St. Charles Parish school district so equipped before the end of the year.

Both Hills and Gray were arrested on warrants issued Oct. 8 and charged with misdemeanor child desertion. The maximum penalty is a $500 fine and/or six months in jail. Both are also on suspension with pay, pending the outcome of their internal investigation.

Songy principal Lloyd Vautrot refused to comment and referred all inquiries to Touchard.

Bond was set on Hills at $5,000 by 29th Judicial District Judge Robert Chaisson. Hills posted a $500 cash bond and was released. Chaisson set a $15,000 bond on Gray, who posted a $1,500 cash bond and was released.