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news
Top Member
Canada
2951 Posts |
 Posted - 09/02/2006 : 08:56:34 AM
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09/02/2006 - San Antonio Express (subscription), TX - It was Isabella Ayala's second day of school and the first time the big yellow school bus was supposed to take her home.
But when the 4-year-old with the pink backpack got off the bus on Northwest Crossroad and looked around the busy street not far from Loop 410, her mom was nowhere in sight.
Within seconds the bus was gone.
"The first thing she said to me was, 'Mommy, I thought you were going to be waiting for me by the tree,'" Gabriela Ayala said. "She was scared."
Ayala said she was on her way to the bus stop with 10 minutes to spare, but the bus, coming from Carlos Coon Elementary School in the Northside Independent School District, was early.
(Bahram Mark Sobhani/Express-News)
Isabella Ayala, 4, has a snack after school in her home. Behind Isabella are her mom, Gabriela, and sister Alexandria.
An older child saw Isabella and told people in the apartment complex office where the Ayalas live that a little girl was standing by the street.
Isabella had just been taken into the office when her mom found her.
Isabella's father, Robert Ayala, a medic stationed at Lackland AFB, called the district's transportation department to find out what happened.
"We were told there was no district policy about waiting for someone to be there to pick up a pre-k student," Ayala said. "The bus driver's priority was to get to the next stop in time. There's no way I'm going to accept that getting to your next destination is more important than my daughter's life."
Only one local school district — the North East Independent School District — has such a written policy. Most districts have an informal practice of returning pre-k students to their school if no one is at the bus stop to pick them up.
Northside spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said just how early the bus arrived at the stop is in dispute. Regardless of how early the bus was, he said, the driver should have waited until the official drop-off time before leaving.
"The driver was clearly in error," Gonzalez said. "They are not to leave their bus stop earlier than scheduled."
The driver was counseled after the incident, Gonzalez said.
The situation is hard for districts, especially as large as Northside, where drivers are transporting tens of thousands of children each day, he said.
In light of Isabella's case, Northside's transportation director has given all drivers notice that if no one is at a stop to pick up a pre-k student, they are to radio the bus dispatch station and return the child to his or her school.
"It is going to create a few minutes of anxiety while the parent gets in touch with the station, but is it better than a child trying to walk home alone? Yes," Gonzalez said.
Like Northside, most school districts in San Antonio do not have written policies, though most have followed the practice of returning pre-k children to their school if no one is there to pick them up.
"A parent has to come to the door of the bus, has to be identified as a parent, and if it's not a parent, the driver calls the school and asks if it's OK for that person to pick them up," said Kevin Brown, spokesman for Alamo Heights ISD.
The district does not have a written policy.
If no authorized person is there to pick a child up, he or she will be returned to the school and the parents will be called.
"At that age, all kinds of things can happen. Sometimes children fall asleep on the bus, and they're so small you can't see their heads above the seats," Brown said. "We also have our bus drivers go through and check every seat at the end of the route."
The practice is similar in San Antonio ISD, though it's not in writing there either.
North East ISD's written policy specifies that pre-kindergarten children will be taken back to the school if no parent or guardian is there to meet them. Drivers usually follow the same practice with kindergarten students.
Judson ISD has no practice of making sure someone is there to pick up the youngest children. Children are dropped off at their designated spot with or without a parent.
As for Isabella, she no longer rides the bus. A neighbor, who has a daughter at the school, drives her.
"I can't risk something like this happening again," Robert Ayala said.
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busdrver4jesus
Top Member
USA
802 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2006 : 2:00:28 PM
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For the life of me, I can not understand the logic behind what happened here. Come on, when does common sense kick in? Who in their right mind leaves a 4 year old child alone at a bus stop? Why was there NOT a policy in place for situations like this? Would the district leave a classroom of 4 year old unattended at school? Of course not! Then why would they not already have a policy in place to avoid leaving a 4 year old unattended on the side of a road? Am I blaming the bus driver? YES, to an extent. Again, where is common sense? Policy or no policy, I would never leave a young child alone on the side of the road, period! Sometimes, I wonder where they hire some of these drivers? Am I blaming the district? ABSOULTELY! There should of already been a policy in place for siuations like this. I am sure this is not the first time a young childs parent has not been at the stop. In any case, I am thankful that the child was unharmed.  |
Edited by - busdrver4jesus on 09/02/2006 2:01:35 PM |
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TX - Bus leaves girl, 4, to own devices
