Excuse Me PLEASE While I Puke

Now, the school system has ordered alarms for its buses. They require drivers to check their bus before getting off. Raley said a bus driver leaving a student on a bus is cause for concern.

"Anytime a four-year-old is alone for two hours, he's in danger if he's not being supervised. We want to make sure everyone knows we don't take that lightly. We think that's a serious issue," Raley said.

While the driver neglected to check the entire bus as required by policy, Raley said the student was aware of his actions.

"The first thing he said to Dr. (Mark) Neighbors and Mr. (Jeff) Foster when they are called over there is 'I was hiding from the bus driver,'" he said.

Raley said the child also probably fell asleep in his seat. To keep this from happening again, the Opelika Board of Education has ordered alarms that require drivers to go to the back of the bus before stepping off. They are similar to the ones the Lee County school system already has in place.

"When drivers shut their engines off after a route, you're going to hear an alarm which is warning me that I need to check my students," said Lee Lindsay, chief operations officer for Lee County Schools.

The driver then has 30 seconds to walk to the back of the bus and open the door.

"It stays open for three to five seconds, and you hear the beeper cancel out," said Lindsay.

If drivers neglect to do that, the headlights flash, and the horn sounds to let them know they've got to go back in and check the bus.