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What this driver did is absolutely wrong, but I get so tired of parents shirking any responsibility when they are remissin their actions.
I agree. I'm not sure that riding a different bus is even allowed at most schools.
This is what the usual procedure was at my old school: both the visiting child's parents and the parents of the bus rider send signed and dated notes to school which are given to the classroom teacher and principal or office staff for approval, bus company may be contacted by school office for approval and bus driver is shown both written notes signed and dated by principal or office staff before the extra child can get on the bus. This was rarely, rarely done and never for something like a play date only for something like a parent is in the hospital and child needs to stay a few days at a friends house.
It probably goes back to insurance coverage and liabilty by the bus company and school. They don't allow "visitors" to ride buses only students who are on their bus list unless it is approved in advance.
Last edited by germaine2626; 06-01-2012 at 12:03 PM..
I've never in my life heard of any school (and I've worked in lots of them) in which a student-- let alone a SEVEN year old-- that is not a regular on the bus would be allowed to just get on the bus without anyone finding out what was going on.
That is absolutely absurd. If the mother didn't know her SEVEN year old daughter needed a note to get on an unfamiliar bus and was cool with her just hopping on.... well, I'm just shaking my head here. There is no mention in the article of the friend, who I assume is not a student at her school. She was just using the bus as transportation to a friend's house. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with that? What if the girl got off at the wrong stop and got lost or hurt? The mother was irresponsible allowing her to do that.
I would imagine that if some person posted here:
I told my 7 year old to take an unfamiliar school bus to a friend's house after school... the friend doesn't go to the school but a bus from her current school goes to that area....
people would ask her if she has gone nuts.
Not suggesting in any way what the driver did was right and she should be fired immediately. But I think the mom made a mistake there.
Clearly this 7 year old was too young for that amount of responsibility.
What happened to the note? If she didn't show it to the driver when she got on the bus shouldn't she still have it to verify to whose house she was going to? And, the 7 year old was just able to "hop on the bus" without the school having any knowledge of her plans?
What about the friend? Shouldn't she have said "She is coming to MY house." If the friend was too little or too scared to speak up then obviously this was not planned out very well by both sets of parents.
Yes, the driver was very wrong but there is plenty of blame to spread around!
I think we can just be very thankful we aren't hearing about an Amber Alert for this little child. it could so easily have had a bad outcome. and the mother couldn't be too irresponsible if she had the sense to give her 7 year old a phone. That fact alone may have saved her life.
The schools where I live don't provide buses for those who are within two miles of the school so if the girl was only about a mile from the school and normally walks to school, I don't see it being that big of a deal. A mile is nothing.
Clearly this 7 year old was too young for that amount of responsibility.
What happened to the note? If she didn't show it to the driver when she got on the bus shouldn't she still have it to verify to whose house she was going to? And, the 7 year old was just able to "hop on the bus" without the school having any knowledge of her plans?
What about the friend? Shouldn't she have said "She is coming to MY house." If the friend was too little or too scared to speak up then obviously this was not planned out very well by both sets of parents.
Yes, the driver was very wrong but there is plenty of blame to spread around!
Our schools don't allow extra kids on the bus in any circumstances.
Yes, the driver was very wrong but so was the mother.
From reading the news stories and watching the news clip the parent in this story appears to believe that she did absolutely nothing wrong. I'm thinking that most responsible parents wouldn't put their child in that situation but the parents who would do that think that everyone else is over-protective.
A number of years ago I taught birth to three year old special education students in an urban setting. I had several parents that would send their three year old (with special needs) child on errands in their neighborhoods. One parent would routinely send her three year to the corner store with a note to pick up a pack of cigarettes (the mom didn't send money, the grocer put it on her tab).
No matter how many times and in how many ways I would explain that this was too much responsibility and too dangerous for a three year old child the mother kept insisting that I was the one that was wrong and being unreasonably overprotective. She would point out that she could see him from her window and he wasn't crossing any streets.
I suspect that is the feeling of this mother, that everyone else is too overprotective to let their seven year do that..
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