What If Gus Didn't Get On The Bus?

We're hearing reports about an incident at Horizon Elementary last week...

Allegedly...a heads-up teacher was looking for a child that was supposed to be in class. Horizon staff put in a call to Kobussen Busing - allegedly to Simon Gilliam to determine if the child (who typically rides the bus) was on/got off the bus.

Allegedly calls from Horizon to Kobussen were not returned for some time. Meanwhile a frantic search ensued for 2 hours. It turns out (thankfully) that the missing young scamp was at home the whole time and the parent didn't know about it.

Here we have the school freaking out, staff freaking out, the parent was freaking out and...one key link in the chain was MIA.

Of course, we only hear a small percentage of these incidents, but it reminds us of two incidents that occurred during the first week of school this year. In these cases, 2 different children--ESL kids at that-- did not get home after school. One "transferred incorrectly" and ended up where they did not belong, while the other was left behind on the bus (the bus was not properly 'cleared; after the last stop), and when the bus driver finally noticed a head peeking out while RTB, said driver allegedly took the child to his/her home. Unfortunately, the now frantic parents were NOT at home--they had gone to the school to get their child! Theswe are elementary school kids, people! Some are under 7 years old!

It wasn't too far back that the FTT committee initiated a witch hunt of sorts to somehow wrestle the Special Ed busing contract from Teri Bedner and T-Durst. Yep...the very same individual and bus company that devotes so much time and effort (not to mention bus service) to provide for a special holiday party for special needs children.

File that under "Things That Make You Go, "Hmmm". Or...give Al Slane a call and strongly suggest that it's time to air busing issues/concerns out formally as an agenda item at an FTT meeting.