Bus incident angers mother
A local mother claims her 10-year-old child was left alone at the end of the driveway last week by a school bus driver.
Not so, say school officials.
At first glance the situation of a bus dropping off a child at his home after school seems fairly routine until you learn the child has cerebral palsy, is wheelchair bound, and can barely speak or move, according to the child?s mother Christina Harrell.
?If a car were to come toward him, he would have been defenseless,? said Harrell. ?He can?t move on his own. That?s why we went to the expense of having a circle drive installed.?
Along with the circular drive, ramps were installed at the front door to ensure the child was driven up to the door, removed from the bus, and taken to the front door. Having the circular drive also meant the bus driver would not have to back out of the driveway.
?We installed the circle drive at our own expense and for his safety,? said Harrell. ?Instead of pulling up the drive, she just put him off the bus and left. If it wasn?t for a neighbor seeing him being dropped off, there is no telling what might have happened or how long he would have been out there.?
Harrell says she wasn?t at home due to a doctor?s appointment. However, she said the child?s grandmother was at the house waiting for the child. The grandmother says she didn?t hear the bus pull up to the house and claims there was no knock at the door.
It is not known why the grandmother wasn?t looking for the bus to arrive.
Melissa Orrick, director of transportation for the Warren County School System, says the child wasn?t left alone. Instead, he was left with someone they thought was an aunt who later turned out to be a neighbor.
?The bus driver did what she was supposed to do,? said Orrick. ?She blew the horn several times and knocked at the door. She radioed here a couple of times asking what she should do. They had sat there for a long time trying to get someone to come to the door. When someone who we thought was the aunt came over, the child was left with her. The child was never left unattended. We would never have done that.?
According to Orrick, this situation isn?t typical but it does happen. In these instances, the bus driver is instructed to make several attempts to alert someone that they are out there. If no one comes out, bus drivers are instructed to notify the school and keep the child with them.
If someone cannot be reached by phone, the police or DHS is then called. In the last 24 years, Orrick says she has had several instances where this has been the end result.