Hello, I am a very active mother of two - Daughter 12 and Son 11.
We have a large busing district, the largest in the state. That may matter, I don't know yet.
At this point I want to explain the circumstances surrounding this situation:
Everyone who lives up the hill we do has to use chains in the winter to get from the pavement to our homes. We park other transportation at the bottom of the hill for trips to town etc. and leave one vehicle chained for the trips up and down in the snow.
Also, there is no cell service in the area. We can't make any calls without driving all the way up to our homes.
Today, I drove to my children's bus stop (approximately 3/4ths of a mile from our home) and waited for the bus to arrive. I am always early, because the bus is not always there at the same time. There have been issues with some of my neighbors not being there for their children, and I have assured my children "I" will always be there or make sure another family member is!
So, two of my neighbors and I waited in our cars. When the bus was 15 minutes late we started to worry. There are at least two stretches of the route where a car can slide over the edge of a drop off. At 30 minutes overdue, another neighbor drove by on his way to work. He had called the school and was told our bus would be 20 minutes or so late. No explanation was given.
I kept wondering if I should go switch to the "go to town" car, and drive towards town looking for the bus... which I have done in the past. The other parents and I decided to wait for 15 more minutes and then one of us would go.
The bus finally arrived with all of our children at 45 minutes past normal time, dropped off the kids and sped up the road.
Now, I asked my daughter, what the delay had been and she explained that a child named Sam, 3 stops before us had not had a parent waiting. The bus driver waited for about 15 minutes, calling on her cell, and finally - leaving a nasty message on the parents answering machine. She then turned around and took Sam back to the school. After the delivery of him to his school, she returned to the route.
I called the bus garage. Asked to speak to the administrator. He was not in so I asked "Jim" what the policy is when a child or children's parents are not there to pick up their children, with no prior arrangement made with neighbors etc. He told me that if the bus was closer to the school than the midway point of the route, the policy was to return that child to the school and then resume the route. Basically it was the drivers call. I asked for him to have the Admin call me as soon as possible.
This particular route is over an hour long. By returning that one child to the school immediately instead of finishing the route, and at the END returning the child to the school, the remaining 15 or 20 separate parents had to sit and worry about all of OUR kids for 45 minutes or longer! Several drove past and tracked the bus down to collect their children as I have done in the past. This very thing happened in October, and several times previously over the years. In October, I called and spoke with someone at the bus garage, and asked the "policy" question and was told the driver "was supposed to finish the route before returning children they could not drop off." I was assured the driver would be talked to and this wouldn't happen again.
Upon speaking with the Admin, who called me this evening, I found indeed it's the drivers call, and it was thought best to return the child so "the parents who weren't there to pick up their child wouldn't worry about the safety of their child"!
:arghh: So, I asked why is the one family who was NOT there to get their child given preference to 20 or more other families? WE worried! WE were on time! And yet, we are made to wait, be late for work, worry our kids are in danger, etc.? Hmm, he said he couldn't discuss this further without first speaking with the driver to find out the particulars. At the end of our discussion he said he knew the driver, would not be happy to have to finish the route, and then return a child; because then she would have to drive all the way back home...to the end of the route. So, for the convenience of the DRIVER?
I have spoken with other parents times previously, and we cannot see why this could possibly be Bus Policy. Do you think the worry of one parent (who should know their child is still ON the bus, or back at School) should be of more value than 20 other families? The driver is doing a job. If it is inconventient for her too bad.
Without any emergency, do you think either of those reasons should be enough? I am ready to contact other parents and take this to the school board and demand this policy be changed! Am I being unreasonable? Have any other parents here experienced something like this?
Thank you. To me this is VERY WRONG and I can't believe this policy could exsist.
~ Shacoya
We have a large busing district, the largest in the state. That may matter, I don't know yet.
At this point I want to explain the circumstances surrounding this situation:
Everyone who lives up the hill we do has to use chains in the winter to get from the pavement to our homes. We park other transportation at the bottom of the hill for trips to town etc. and leave one vehicle chained for the trips up and down in the snow.
Also, there is no cell service in the area. We can't make any calls without driving all the way up to our homes.
Today, I drove to my children's bus stop (approximately 3/4ths of a mile from our home) and waited for the bus to arrive. I am always early, because the bus is not always there at the same time. There have been issues with some of my neighbors not being there for their children, and I have assured my children "I" will always be there or make sure another family member is!
So, two of my neighbors and I waited in our cars. When the bus was 15 minutes late we started to worry. There are at least two stretches of the route where a car can slide over the edge of a drop off. At 30 minutes overdue, another neighbor drove by on his way to work. He had called the school and was told our bus would be 20 minutes or so late. No explanation was given.
I kept wondering if I should go switch to the "go to town" car, and drive towards town looking for the bus... which I have done in the past. The other parents and I decided to wait for 15 more minutes and then one of us would go.
The bus finally arrived with all of our children at 45 minutes past normal time, dropped off the kids and sped up the road.
Now, I asked my daughter, what the delay had been and she explained that a child named Sam, 3 stops before us had not had a parent waiting. The bus driver waited for about 15 minutes, calling on her cell, and finally - leaving a nasty message on the parents answering machine. She then turned around and took Sam back to the school. After the delivery of him to his school, she returned to the route.
I called the bus garage. Asked to speak to the administrator. He was not in so I asked "Jim" what the policy is when a child or children's parents are not there to pick up their children, with no prior arrangement made with neighbors etc. He told me that if the bus was closer to the school than the midway point of the route, the policy was to return that child to the school and then resume the route. Basically it was the drivers call. I asked for him to have the Admin call me as soon as possible.
This particular route is over an hour long. By returning that one child to the school immediately instead of finishing the route, and at the END returning the child to the school, the remaining 15 or 20 separate parents had to sit and worry about all of OUR kids for 45 minutes or longer! Several drove past and tracked the bus down to collect their children as I have done in the past. This very thing happened in October, and several times previously over the years. In October, I called and spoke with someone at the bus garage, and asked the "policy" question and was told the driver "was supposed to finish the route before returning children they could not drop off." I was assured the driver would be talked to and this wouldn't happen again.
Upon speaking with the Admin, who called me this evening, I found indeed it's the drivers call, and it was thought best to return the child so "the parents who weren't there to pick up their child wouldn't worry about the safety of their child"!
:arghh: So, I asked why is the one family who was NOT there to get their child given preference to 20 or more other families? WE worried! WE were on time! And yet, we are made to wait, be late for work, worry our kids are in danger, etc.? Hmm, he said he couldn't discuss this further without first speaking with the driver to find out the particulars. At the end of our discussion he said he knew the driver, would not be happy to have to finish the route, and then return a child; because then she would have to drive all the way back home...to the end of the route. So, for the convenience of the DRIVER?
I have spoken with other parents times previously, and we cannot see why this could possibly be Bus Policy. Do you think the worry of one parent (who should know their child is still ON the bus, or back at School) should be of more value than 20 other families? The driver is doing a job. If it is inconventient for her too bad.
Without any emergency, do you think either of those reasons should be enough? I am ready to contact other parents and take this to the school board and demand this policy be changed! Am I being unreasonable? Have any other parents here experienced something like this?
Thank you. To me this is VERY WRONG and I can't believe this policy could exsist.
~ Shacoya
