Singing the Bus Stop Blues

Let me start by saying that I am a big fan of school buses. I've never ridden on one myself as my school district didn't offer bus transportation, but as a parent, I am a big proponent of them. From an environmental standpoint, it kills me to see people driving their kids to school when a bus comes right past their house every day at the same time. Why should I increase my fossil fuel consumption by driving my child to and from school every day when this great big yellow bus will be driving the route regardless? Most of my neighbors and most of Elise's friends ride the bus, so she also has a good time during her rides to and from school. It is a big social time for her. Don't even get me started on how much I hate the carpool line in the afternoon. I'd rather jab a pencil in my eye than sit in that long line of Suburbans and minivans all idling and running their air conditioning for half an hour. If I don't time my arrival just right, then I end up in the section of the queue where parents choose to cut in line. Why they think it is OK to cut in line is completely beyond my comprehension. I've been sitting there for ten minutes working on my Sudoku puzzle while waiting for school to let out, yet for some reason, you get to jump right in front of me just as the bell rings? Do you also cut in line at the movie theater? How about a restaurant?  I'm guessing not, so why do you do it in the carpool line?  Anyway, I shouldn't have started down that path. It makes my blood boil just thinking about it. Suffice it to say, I prefer the school bus over carpool.

Nina has been hanging out at the bus stop with Elise every morning for the past three years. She loves going to the bus stop. Every morning, as JC and Elise head outside, she yells out, "Can I go to the bus stop too?" and races out the door with them. To her, riding the bus is a rite of passage - one she couldn't wait to experience. She wanted to be included with the kids getting on the bus each morning, not with the few younger siblings left behind.

As her first day of kindergarten approached, we all had hopes, dreams, and expectations. My hope for Nina was that she simply have a great day. I wanted her to have fun, meet a few new friends, and be excited about the year ahead of her. Knowing her kindergarten teacher as well as I do, I expected nothing less than that. Nina's hopes for the day involved riding the bus, playing in the centers she had seen at Meet the Teacher night, and taking a backpack. It all sounds so simple, right?

No, apparently, it is not.

We all gathered at our bus stop in the morning. We usually have about 10 kids at our stop. As we saw the bus enter our neighborhood, we knew that was our five minute warning that the bus would loop around the neighborhood and arrive at our stop five minutes later. Only it didn't. A few minutes later, we saw the bus go back out the neighborhood on the same street it came in on. Instead of making a loop, it made a U-turn. No worries, we thought. It is the first day of school and obviously a new bus driver. We'll straighten this out before tomorrow. Poor Nina though... she had been so geared up to ride the bus.  I offered to take a couple of neighbor friends to school in my van, so with friends on board, I think that made the drive seem a bit like a bus trip to her. Whew, crisis averted. I dropped them off at school and then tried to call the transportation department to get the bus route corrected. I called the main number for transportation and was told that our route is in the GH area, so I needed to call the GH area manager. No problem. I called the GH manager and was told we are in the C area. Hmmm. I called the C area and was told we are in the GH area. OK. Now we have a problem. Who exactly is responsible for this route? I told my story of the missed stop to both the C and GH managers, but since neither seemed to think it was their route, I had no confidence that the route would change by the afternoon. The C manager even told me that she had no way of finding out who the driver of the bus was without knowing the number that is stamped on the back of the bus (which is not the same as our route number #2). I told her that I had no way of knowing that number since the bus HAD NOT COME TO MY STOP! How could I possibly see the back of the bus if it hadn't come down my street? I decided that for the afternoon, I better wait at one of the stops on the main road where the bus had driven that morning.

School lets out at 3:45. We are one of the last stops, so the bus typically arrives between 4:15 and 4:30. As I stood at the stop with several other moms, 4:30 came and went. Then 4:45. Then, one of the moms called the school to get the whereabouts of the bus only to be told that nobody was answering the phone at GH transportation, so they had no way to contact the bus driver. Nice. 5:00 came and went. We called the school again and were told that many bus #2 parents were calling asking about the bus. Finally, we spot a bus coming from a completely different direction than buses have ever come through our neighborhood. It had passed our usual bus stop, so I did not know whether my children had been let off at our usual stop or whether they were still on the bus. One mom ran over there to find out what was going on and explain the route to the driver. The driver said she had left the school late and then also gotten lost. Here it was, almost an hour and a half after school let out, and my poor tired kindergartener was finally home from her first day of school. I was so disappointed. It was not the fun bus ride she was expecting, and certainly not the fun, exciting day I was hoping for her. She got off the bus with a smile though. I think she was just thrilled to be home.

Elise was another story though. She was a basketcase. She completely came apart at the seams, and as she started relaying the story of the bus ride from hell to me, it became clear that this was no ordinary bus ride. She said that there were four middle or high school kids on the bus who the bus driver had put in charge of discipline (this is an elementary school bus. There should have been no child over fifth grade). These teenagers yelled at the children, got mad if they opened their backpacks to get out a book to read or paper and pen to draw. The children were told they could not open their backpacks for any reason and had to keep their backpacks on their laps the entire trip (all 1.5 hours of it). The teenagers would not let any of them talk to the bus driver (even though most of the 5th graders could probably do the route in their sleep and could have helped her out when she was lost). The teenagers rearranged where the children were sitting and told them they would have assigned seats the next day. Elise just bawled and bawled (as did all her friends whose parents I've now spoken with). Then Elise told me about her friend A. A's mother and two other parents were standing at their usual stop when the bus blew right past them. They were waving their arms trying to flag down the bus, but she kept right on driving. A started crying saying, "That was my mommy! You missed my stop! My mommy was back there! Please stop!" The bus driver told her that the stop wasn't on her sheet, and that she was only stopping at the stops on her sheet. The teenagers told her to stop talking and sit down. A (age 7) and her little brother C (age 6) felt trapped. The bus had gone past their mom. They didn't know where to get off, and they weren't allowed to talk. They felt like hostages. By the time Elise told me all this, the bus was long gone, so there was nothing I could do to help A and C. In talking to parents later, I found out that one parent from A's stop had jumped in her car and caught up with the bus. When she got on the bus to take her own child off, she said, "You missed the stop back at P Court. There are several parents there, so you will need to loop back to that stop." The bus driver said she would. Then she left our neighborhood. Yes. She left. Poor A and C were still on the bus and terrified. What did this woman think she was going to do with them? I'm just so baffled. I understand that the stop wasn't on her official route sheet, but that doesn't cancel the fact that those children are on the bus and need to get off. She eventually circled back to our neighborhood and A and C were let off the bus at 5:30, nearly two hours after school let out. A was completely traumatized, and no wonder. I would have been too.

After learning all this, I was livid. I was sad for Nina that her big first day of kindergarten was so tainted by this school bus disaster. I was absolutely sickened by what A, C, and their mother experienced.  No child should feel like they are unsafe and held hostage on a school bus of all places. Obviously, I wasn't putting my kids on the bus the next day, so I worked out a carpool arrangement with a neighbor. As I was driving out of the neighborhood doing my carpool duties, I talked to several neighbors who told me that once again the bus had skipped our stop that morning even though a neighbor at another stop specifically told the driver, "There are about 10 kids down at that stop on N street. You'll need to go by there." When I arrived at the school, I stopped to talk to the assistant principal.  The woman next to her overheard me mention the bus, and she stepped forward to say she was the GH transportation manager. Thank goodness! I didn't have to play the "That's not our route" phone game. As she sat down with me to listen to my concerns, my neighbor from around the corner walked up to add her complaints to the list. Then a minute later, my neighbor from the next cul-de-sac walked up. Next it was my neighbor whose house is right by the bus stop. All four of us relayed our stories. She carefully took notes about the issues with the route and gave us a form to fill out to request that our stop be added back to the route because apparently our stop was no longer an official bus stop.

She then informed us that while GH transportation is in charge of the route, the driver is from C transportation. She said that all complaints about the driver would have to go to the C transportation manager. Great. You know... since I have had such stellar experiences with them so far. I called the C transportation manager and told her everything I knew about what had happened that day on the bus. She simply said she would talk to the driver. Uh... thanks? I have left her messages twice since then asking for an update and received no return phone call. I also called GH transportation today to ask one simple question and was told once again that this was not their route and I needed to call C transportation. There appears to be no accountability.

So, where do I go from here? Elise refuses to ride the bus again while this driver is driving, and frankly, as much as I despise carpool, I'm with her on that. I have zero confidence in this driver's judgement calls. Why didn't she stop where those parents were waiting and tell them, "This is not an official stop. Here are your children, but I will not stop here tomorrow. You need to go to the corner of x and y."? Instead, she had her minions tell the distraught child to sit down and be quiet while she continued to drive for another half hour. Why did she have high school children on the bus at all? Why did she allow them to treat the children so harshly? I am just sick over all of it.

Our wonderful, caring, responsible bus driver is out with a broken foot, so I guess we'll be counting down the days until she is back. Sweet, naive Nina was so cute through all this. I think the one blessing in this is that since she had never ridden on the bus before, she had no clue how truly awful this bus ride was. She has nothing to use as comparison. She simply told us, "That was the most boring bus ride I've ever been on!" Considering the way Elise described it, I'd say "boring" was actually quite complementary.

I had hoped to have some of this resolved before I posted this long saga, but sadly, questions still remain. Phone calls go unanswered. Apologies have not been uttered. Responsibility has not been taken. I'm still pursuing answers and accountability, but until then, you'll find me sitting in the carpool line, increasing my carbon footprint, doing Sudoku, and cursing the parents cutting in front of me. My children will feel safe though, and that is all that matters.

 

P.S. Mrs. M... I know you're out there reading this. Think you could rough up that bus #2 driver for me? I know you've got it in you!  :)

Comments

[Suetta]

My Goodness!
I agree with everything you said.

As a non-parent and former work commuter, I've always wondered why people would drive their kids to school. My drive to work was always longer due to long lines of cars with a parent and one child in the car along my route of major 2-lane roads. That used to drive me nuts.

Good luck in trying to get resolution and accountability!

[Tracy]

OMG I am just heartbroken and angry reading this! That is just awful! I hope you find out what is going on and get a quick resolution. Thinking of you!