Late Bus Scare

My reaction to your question is that you are freaking out too much. I grew up riding the bus for about an hour each day. Mostly, it was on time, but there would be occasions where it would run late. There are a million variables as to why it might run late. There really isn't a valid reason to call unless something were wrong. If they were to call every time a bus were running late, they'd most likely be calling however many hundred families each day and most people aren't sitting by the phone like you were. If you don't feel like the people who work at the school are trustworthy with your child (which is what it sounds like), I think its a great idea to move your child to another school. There are many private schools with great reputations. If you merely don't trust your child's bus driver, then you should take on the responsibility of driving your child to and from school each day and you will no longer need to have any worries. From what you said in your email, there were no other parents with concerns about the driver. Were there other parents whose children had negative encounters with the driver, then that would be an issue with which you would need to take to the school board. If you feel like you trust your child's teachers and bus driver and you're simply freaking out because the bus was late, you are being unreasonable. Have you ever been late in your life? I know I have.

I respectfully disagree--you are not freaking out too much. Regardless of how much you trust someone, it is always well within your right as a mom to worry about your child. And like another poster, it is the school's legal responsibility to care for your child. It's not like the bus was late on its route home, it was late even getting to school, leaving a whole group of students stranded in the care of the school (and evidently a 5th grader). While it may not be feasible to call every child's family, the very least the school can do is make someone available to answer calls since the students are still AT school. As a teacher, I know that within a half-hour of school letting out, several teachers should still be on premises...it wouldn't hurt to have one or two of them bring work to the office to help man the phones in these emergency situations. I love your idea of a phone tree, too--kudos to you for trying to find a solution instead of merely complaining about it. In this day and age, there are instances where bus drivers are truly negligent and a danger (in terms of drug use, etc.), so bringing attention to this situation might help flag something if it's a repeated offence, and separate it from merely a one-time running-late incident (which yes, we have all had...just not with other people's children). Personally, I think yanking your kid out of a school where he's happy and successful would be an even bigger overreaction.

I would call the school and ask why they were not available under these circumstances. I have worked in the schools and know that normally under these circumstances someone is there to answer the phones even after normal hours for the exact reason that there are very concerned adults waiting for these children. You are not being unreasonable. I would also question who was in charge of your child while they were waiting for the other bus. In my opinion it is one thing to have a 5th grader walk the children to the bus. It is completely another to leave them in charge of all these children on their own for an extended period of time. This is your child. It is ALWAYs ok to be their advocate!

I would have been terrified.

I think it's totally reasonable for you to call his school and ask them what happened, to explain what their current procedure is for handling this type of situation (was it followed, or did someone screw that up and that's why you weren't contacted?), and what you can do to help them improve on that procedure.

It so unfortunate that you had to deal with that- and that your son did!- but now that it's over, maybe it would actually make you feel better, and more confident about future incidents, if you had a hand in putting together the procedure for handling them.

Good luck!!

M.

This sounds like last Tuesday when we had that snow storm. My daughter was 45min.late coming home. She has about 30-40 kids at her bus stop so I knew the bus didn't come yet. Funny thing is we live less than 1mile from school and less than 1mile from the bus company.

I was furious too but knew it was just the bus being late.

My daughter's bus is late everday to her school so the kids go outside can't find the bus and then go inside where my daughter mentions multiple adults watch them.

Our bus is late everyday because it has another route in Eagan before our route and we live on the border of Savage so it's hard for her to get over to my daughter's school on time.

It's frustrating and I think the bus company needs to refigure our driver and get us one that can be on time.

Call and make a complaint with the principal, the bus company and who ever is in charge with transportation in your school district. Make sure you stress the fact that you couldn't find your child, and you couldn't get ahold of anyone either. Tell them you were almost left with no other choice but to call the police because your child was missing.

I have a first grader too and she's to small and shy to say something or let the bus driver know somethings wrong so I worry too. The only thing that reassures me is we live in rental townhouses and there are apartments behind us so there are a ton of kids at her stop that know her and I would think a older child would help out if needed.

Your not being unreasonable at all. I would totally pannick and freak out. It's like when your kid wonders off in a store and your heart drops.

Let me start by saying that this has happened to my second grade daughter a few times already this year. Mostly it's just busses getting to the school late or leaving the school late. Sometimes the bus driver needs to stop the bus because of the kids riding it.

I remember riding the bus and our driver having to pull the bus over, to stop fighting and running up and down the aisles, 5 times before I got off and I only lived 5 miles from the school.

One thing you need to remember is that it's winter. It is not uncommon for busses to break down in the winter more than any other time of the year.

I know that it doesn't make any sense, but it is not the job of the school employees (secretary, principal, teachers...) to call parents in this kind of situation. It is the job of the bus company.

However, you should definitely let the principal, the head of the bus company, and the school board know what happened so that they can take the steps to insure that it doesn't happen again.

I was a teacher in St. Paul for years and someone always stayed in the office until every bus reported their routes as complete (this was often quite late on especially cold or stormy evenings!). Parents would call if their kids were late or didn't come home and we would sometimes have to scramble to find a child that had got on the wrong bus or simply didn't come home from the bus stop. The school is legally responsible for your child until they arrive at the bus stop. I'd start with the school. If the school believes it is a bus issue, they will refer you to the bus company.

I personally haven't experienced this, but with all the scares there are in the news about kids being left on busses, or dropped of in the wrong locations, etc, I personally think that you have a right to be upset and to try and fix the problem. We know the saying, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem." You can NEVER be too careful when it comes to your child, and if your gut is telling you that something needs to change, then by all means,...take the lead position and get something started. I'd at least start a tree phone system for those parents of whom your child does ride with. Do what you can to contact those parents and start a child watch program because if something were to ever go wrong,...you have a system in place to help. It's at least peace of mind knowing that there is a system in place. The school bus system has taken a bad rap the last few years,...and with good reason. I hear things on the news all the time, and I have mom friends that have had things go awry at times with their children and buses that don't make the news. So,...it makes you wonder how often this really happens. I think, unfortunately, this incidences are pretty common. I say, fix the problem if you can. Afterall, it's your child you're watching out for. Don't doubt yourself. Good luck.