Kansas fourth-grader misses bus, drives himself to school in family’s truck

A fourth-grader in Maize missed his bus Wednesday morning and decided to drive the family’s lifted truck roughly three miles to school, Maize police Sgt. Braden Blackburn said.

“That was one of the first things we noticed, was that he parked the vehicle in the stall a lot better than most people would,” Blackburn said, adding the only possible fine would go toward the parents and not the child, which they decided not to do. “He is definitely in more trouble with them than he would be with us.”

He said the parents were both very upset with what he did.

Police were called at 8:09 a.m. when a caller said they saw another driver at the four-way stop of Khedive and Academy that didn’t do anything illegal but looked to be 10 or 11, Blackburn said.

The boy is actually 9.

He said the boy lives close to 37th and Maize. He went to his school, Pray-Woodman Elementary School, 605 W. Academy.

An officer arriving was flagged down and found the boy outside of the truck, Blackburn said. The officer took the keys from the boy.

Blackburn said, he assumes, the boy had the seat high up to see over the steering wheel in the older Chevrolet pickup.

Buses were still arriving when the boy pulled into the parking lot, he said, adding he thought they had state testing on Wednesday. One parent was already at work and the other was away on a trip, he said, adding the boy was supposed to take the bus.

Blackburn said they often get calls drivers people think are too young. Usually, it ends up being a teen who just got their license.

“This was definitely a first,” he said.

This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 2:49 PM.