District makes changes after no-show school bus strands students
Richmond (Va.) Public Schools will now take students directly to after-school programs instead of transporting them to a different school to wait for another bus after a second bus fails to arrive and strands three students.
RICHMOND, Va. — A school district here is changing its student transportation procedures after three students were left alone outside for hours on Monday night and walked for miles to get to an after-school program, WWBT reports.
Jean Johnson’s 11-year-old son, Zhavar, is a student at Albert Hill Middle School, and attends an after-school program at Thomas H. Henderson Middle School, according to the news source. He takes a school bus three days a week to George Washington Carver Elementary School to wait for another bus to bring him to the after-school program. However, on Monday, the second bus never arrived, WWBT reports.
Zhavar and his two classmates eventually arrived at Thomas H. Henderson Middle School at 6 p.m., having walked from the elementary school where they had waited for the no-show bus, according to the news source. Johnson told WWBT that they walked the 4 miles in the rain, crossing three or four major intersections. She added that it was not the first time her son was left stranded, but she was more upset that the school wasn’t able to tell her why the bus never showed up.
Richmond Public Schools told WWBT that the bus didn’t arrive due to a miscommunication over pickup details, and that it is changing its procedure, taking students directly to their after-school programs from now on.
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