My son was left on the bus well after everyone
had gone home for the night. The bus driver was the last in the line of checks and balances. He went to the rear
of the bus looked at all the seats, and saw nothing, but he did not go all the way to the back of the bus. Something
he will have to live with for the rest of his life. I have spoken with him and he is very, no, extremely distraught
over that fact.
But consider this! This is where the neglect rears its ugly
head! My son's mother does not work and she did not get home until 6:30pm that evening. Three hours after my
son had gotten out of school! If my sons mother had been waiting at the bus stop she would have gotten on the bus to
see why my son had not gotten off. Or, at least if she had been home her daughter would have told her my son didn't
get off the bus. She would have called the school immediately. In either case the problem would not have
occured. The matter would have been taken care of in a matter of minutes...NOT HOURS!!!
Let us not forget that the school districts policies had a hand in this also.
The policy that did not ensure that the bus driver would have to go all the way to the back of the bus. The policy
that does not ensure that the Busing Director has a means for checking to see if his drivers are going all
the way to the back of the bus. A policy that for about $3 (or less) a bus would ensure the drivers do their jobs and
the Director would be able to see that the drivers were doing their jobs.
There are a few ways to cure this problem. The quickest to implement and the least
costly is to require the driver to place a sign in the back window of the bus after each time he had children aboard.
The sign could say EMPTY, CLEAR or my personal favorite...I CHECKED THE BACK SEAT! There are also electronic alarms
that can be used that require the driver to go to the back of the bus to turn it off. These are much more costly
and take longer to implement. Maybe they could use the signs until the alarms are installed. At the very
least, EVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT IN THE COUNTRY SHOULD HAVE ONE OF THESE POLICIES IN PLACE!!! IMMEDIATELY IF NOT SOONER!!!
The bus driver in question is scarred for life! With all the media doing
reports about it and blaming him, I'm sure the majority of the people out there blame him as well. But, they are ill
informed. The people in the know, know what happened. I tried on several occasions to get the media to ask his
mother one question. Why did it take 3 hours to start searching for your son? To no avail.
To fix this problem, this school district WILL change their procedure. This
bus driver WILL always go all the way to the back of the bus. WILL my sons mother change her ways......I THINK NOT!!!!!!
I do not blame the bus driver. As a matter of fact, he may have inadvertently
done my son a favor since there was not any adult supervision at home. The bus driver is not the cause. The
bus driver is THE VICTIM OF CHILD NEGLECT!!
