Charlie Taylor, 61, had been driving for Wake County for 15 years, school spokesman Bill Poston said.

The parent, Lisa McGlohon, complained that her son Brady, 6, was returned to his bus stop in Wake Forest last week after she had put him on the bus. The child, crying, went to a neighbor's house.

Brady told Taylor he had gotten on the wrong bus, Poston said. So Taylor took him back to his bus stop even though Taylor's bus was going to Brady's school, North Forest Pines Elementary.

Poston said Taylor did not follow proper procedure in returning Brady to the bus stop.

The episode began when McGlohon drove Brady to the stop July 16. The bus pulled up, and Taylor, a substitute driver, opened the doors. He asked whether the boy was going to North Forest Pines Elementary.

"I said, 'Yes, sir,' " McGlohon said.

Brady got on the bus, and McGlohon said she told him to be a good kid. Then, the bus drove off, McGlohon said.

The next thing she knew, her neighbor called her, saying Brady had just knocked on her door. The neighbor said Brady was pale and had been crying.

"My heart sank," McGlohon said.

Brady later told her that when he got on the bus, he told the driver he was supposed to be on the "red route," but this bus was the "purple route."

The driver turned around and dropped him off at the bus stop and told him another bus would be coming.

McGlohon wants to know why the driver did this, since he was going to Brady's school anyway.

"He literally endangered my child," she said. "I want to feel safe in putting my child on the bus."

Now, McGlohon drives Brady to school every day.

"He doesn't want to ride the bus," she said.