WELLESLEY, Mass. -- School officials in Wellesley are promising an investigation after a white after-school program teacher mistakenly put a black kindergarten student from Wellesley on a bus and sent him to Boston with other minority students who participate in a voluntary desegregation busing program.

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Officials Explain Mix Up

Newscenter 5's Jack Harper reported that the parents of the boy who was mistakenly sent to Boston's Dorchester neighborhood is not very happy about it. The program said they expect the boy to return to the program.

The real hero in this story is the woman on the other end of the bus trip. A Dorchester parent saw the confused little boy, and asked where he lived, when he said Wellesley, she went through his backpack found his identification and contacted his family. The little boy was home later Tuesday afternoon.

As for the program, the Wellesley kindergarten program admits they made a mistake.

"We have Wellesley kindergarteners come to our after school programs and a child who lives in Wellesley was inadvertently put onto a bus going into Boston with Wellesley Metco children, " said Mary Kloppenberg of Wellesley Community Children's Center.

Among the questions facing the Wellesley Community Children's Center is whether the teacher assumed the boy was a Metco student simply because he was black.

"That is why we are beginning a thorough investigation into if there were any biases. (The teacher) is a good person who made a bad mistake and any good organization must look at itself carefully and seriously," said Kloppenberg.

"Of course we are all shocked. It is outrageous that that would happen to one of our youngsters. We are looking at this as a teachable moment, an opportunity for us as a community, as a entire community, to take a look at the way we work with kids," said Wellesley School Superintendent Matthew King.

All involved in the program have admitted they made a mistake and said they will get to the bottom of the case and make certain it will not happen again.