Stuck on the bus!!!

[Mom2torandis]

As a lot of you may already know my children attend Public School and I am one of those Mean Mommy that makes their children ride the bus.  Well yesterday After noon they got stuck on the bus when the bus broke down.  I am pretty understanding when it comes to things like this.  I understand that there are things that as humans we can not control.  Let me set the scene for you just a little.  Yesterday it was 104 degrees in our little town and the bus broke down in front of the High School.  The bus driver made the kids STAY ON THE BUS!  Someone came out and checked out the bus, and off they went ot srop of the kids.  It broke down AGAIN!  This time on the side of the road.  When my children got home my daughter was so sick from the heat that she barely made it down the driveway and it took her 4 hours (and 2 cold showers) of being home before she was feeling better.  Needless to say I went to the school this morning to complain(actually have a fullblown fit). When I walked into the office the lady behind the desk didn't ask what I was their for just handed me a slip of paper with a number on it and said "this is who you call about the bus yesterday"   WTF!!!!!!!!  They new it was wrong and not to mention dangerous and they did NOTHING? Well I asked her why they (at the middle school) let it happen and she said they didn't, INFACT they offered to send a couple of  their teachers up their to help take the kids off the bus and into the high school where they would be cooler and keep an eye on them till either the bus was repaired or parents where called.  The bus driver said NO!  So this morning I am waiting to call this guy that is in charge of the busses to find out WTF he was thinking having those children left on the bus instead of going in to the school where they would be safe.  Did I mention that one of the young ladies (middle school student) on the bus Passed Out, and then spent the evening in the hospital being monitored? She will be ok THANK GOD.  She did not need to be in the hospital, my child did not need to be sick and neither did any other child on that BUS!  This could have been avoided easily.

[zklara]

Aug. 10, 2007 at 6:31 PM I would be mad too. Go get them! Not good!

[HazieD]

Aug. 10, 2007 at 6:51 PM

You have every right to be angry. The bus driver obviously made a bad call in regard to the children's health and safety. 

I would ask a couple of questions: #1Exactly who is responsible for the kids once in the care of the driver? The driver may have kept the kids on the bus because of a previously imposed protocol or because of insurance stipulations. He may also have been afraid of the kids scattering and/or getting lost in the other building. Was there anyone to watch over them? They would need three people, too, one to watch the kids in a designated spot, one to guide kids to the bathroom, water fountains, in an unfamiliar school, as well as the driver to wait with his bus.

#2-Does dispatch/the bus company have a way to contact parents with the option to come pick up their kids at a designated site should this occur? This would be an integral change in how the bus systems operate; having phone lists for the kids who regularly ride each individual route.

I had an incident involving a child I was providing care for last year: it turns out the bus company changed their routing and the information was not passed along to parents in time. I waited for over an hour with two little ones on a hot day at the bus stop until a neighbor who happened to have seen us (and who had taken the bus the previous year) told us of the route change.And told us that our stop wasn't on the route any more.Thank goodness the child had didn't get off the bus at any old place that looked familiar. I was bewildered to think that he might be anywhere in the city. Fortunately, I called his mother, who called the school who called the bus company.  The little boy I was to have picked up was over 15 miles away headed toward a suburb. Yep, we were all furious. That driver should have taken the extra initiative to call the school, ask for the childs contact info, and notified us. What was he thinking with a kid so far from the origin of his route? It's scary when your kid "just doesn't show up". Scary for the kid too, who also got carsick from the long stop and go trip through town.

I hope you get some resolution on this. Perhaps this unfortunate incident will facilitate some good changes that will be better for the kids, the parents and the bus company. (who, I am sure, did have a lot of angry calls...)

[masastan]

Aug. 10, 2007 at 7:22 PM My kids bus driver and her helper are both required to carry cell phones now so that when something like this happens, they can notify the parents and let it be the parents choice to pick up their kids from wherever the bus is, or to just wait it out.  If the kids were on the bus for more than 5 min waiting in front of the HS, I am sure the driver thought it best to leave them on rather than loading and unloading.  I am sure she never meant to harm the children.  My kids have been stuck on the bus like that, they all had cold water to drink on the bus so it wasn't that bad.  See if you can send a frozen bottle of water with your child to school to have on the bus in the afternoon.  It's required here.

[Mom2torandis]

Aug. 10, 2007 at 8:44 PM

UPDATE!!!!!!                                                                                                                                                                    I spoke with the one of the people in charge at the bus company.  I was told that the driver was WRONG (duh), they where not sure why she decided to keep the children on the bus, they (the bus company) where going to "chalk this one up as a learning experience" and also said the the driver was fired(BUT someone told me that they saw her driving a different bus this afternoon). They also said that they tried to talk to the school district into holding off the first day of school for a week but they would not do it. The young lady that passed out from the heat is fine and my Daughter said she saw her in school today. We do not have driver helpers (monitors) on your buses, and I am not sure how many of them actually carry cell phones.  I also checked into the frozen water bottles for the bus trip home and was told under no circumstance are the children aloud to drink on the bus.  The woman that drove the bus yesterday was not the driver assigned to the route, the normal driver is sick and has not drove yet this year.

(Original Poster)