Buses Don’t Lose Children
July 11, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Not again: This past Tuesday, an 8-year-old autistic boy, Devin Slaney, was “misplaced” on a school bus that was to bring him home following his first day of summer school in Edmonds, Washington, HeraldNet reports. Said his mother, Rebecca Slaney: “‘I understand accidents happen. Buses get into accidents, but they cannot lose children.’”
Oh man.
Glad Devin’s safe.
The school buses kinda freak me out. Kai has had a minor issue with the driver this week. One of the other moms told me that when the bus dropped off her child, Kai was screaming and wailing in his seat. The mom climbed on the bus to unbuckle her child (the driver won’t do it) and checked on Kai because he was so obviously distraught. All that had happened was that his backpack had fallen and he couldn’t reach it, but the driver had no intent to even check to see what was wrong. I can’t believe that she wouldn’t at least want to stop the crying for personal comfort reasons, not to mention that a child could be hurt or in danger.
And, had the mom not told me about this situation, I would have had no way of knowing it even happened, as Kai is incapable of telling me about his day. He has some language, but not nearly enough for the level of communication required to tell me about his day.
I am reporting this to the school district, mostly because I fear that next time there could be a danger to one of the children and she will be too lazy to get up and check on them. At least it is an issue of mild negligence and not malice or abuse, but I am having a hard time letting Kai ride the bus now. It’s too bad he loves it so much, it breaks my heart to tell him no.
When my son was in preschool he was accidently left on the bus instead of being taken off at the school. He had a trip to the bus barn, where he was discovered, sitting there quietly.
I got called by the school, the bus driver discovered him and then took him to the school. The preschool aide apologized for missing him.
It never occured to me to complain to the press.
Of course, the worst time was when his little bus was late getting to the school because a new bus driver* was lost doing the high school route. I called the school and the bus company multiple times to find out where he was. The bus company explained that the driver was lost and had not arrived at the elementary school yet.
The bad part was the clueless secretary who told me nothing, and my son was sitting on the couch with the two other special ed. kids who were went on his bus just 6 feet from her. She did not even bother to figure out who those kids were, or to ask anyone for information. So instead of waiting for two hours, I could have driven up to the school to pick him up myself!
Fortunately, due to other displays of obvious incompetence that woman was actually fired from the district.
* Unfortunately the reason there was a new bus driver was because the absolutely wonder grandmotherly driver had died suddenly the previous weeken. She had been driving my son for almost three years. She was replaced with another nice driver who drove my son for the next year, until I had an IEP meeting to put him on the regular bus (in an attempt to fully mainstream him, which worked).
Though what happened to Devin was far worse… though a preschool classmate of my son was dropped off at the wrong spot without being met. His mother was livid.
Gives me the jitters as I am sending Matt on the bus this fall for first time, but only if his aide shows up each AM or I will drive him myself. I need to find out if there are other aides on the bus as well.
Now there are always aides in addition to the bus drivers. I really try (as in everything with Charlie) to develop a good relationship over time with both driver and aide, as you never know when problems can result. We had one problem last year: We had a great driver and aide, and then (without warning, of course) the aide was gone and another woman in her place. Charlie had a moment of aggression towards her, after which there were a lot of exchanges among the teacher, me, the aide; after that, she sat in her seat and Charlie buckled himself in.
Then the original aide returned and the bus driver herself seemed much more relaxed.
Then the original aide disappeared again…….
Thank goodness Devin is safe!
I also try to develop a rapport with the drivers and monitors. Even when there’s a sub, I always try to at least find out their names and introduce myself. I have convinced myself that people are a bit more careful with your children when they see you as a person, with a name not just a face, instead of just some random parent. I don’t know that it makes any difference, but it makes me feel better.
I love the name Devin . I have a son with autism he is 7 when he was 4 he was left on his school mini bus 2 seats behind the driver . The driver unloaded the kids at his pre-school and my son was left on the bus . The driver then parked the bus in the bus lot and went out for breakfast. 3 hours later she came back to the bus were she found my son . she returned him to school were he was checked out by the nurse then questioned by at least 5 school staffers including the superintendent and school psychologist. and when thay thought he was ok they sent him out to the play ground . Oh did I forget to mention they didnt call me for 2 hours after it happened . I guess they needed time to get ther stories straight . My son didnt eat or sleep for days he was frigthened of the bus and I was told by the principal I should not talk to him about it that we should put it in a drawer and stow it away . Luckly I did not take her advice we went for an emergency visit to his neurologist and she was convinced he was suffering from post trammatic stress syndrom. I hope Divin is ok and I hope no on will ever have to go through anything like this ever again as for my son he has been placed out of distic and is doing grate. Just wanted to add my sons school has instaled alarms that will go off if the driver dosent walk back to the back of the bus and flip a switch they put these on the big buses not the small ones witch is like the one my son was on. Maybe one day they will relize kids with speech problems cant let you no there in trouble and they are supposed to take extra care of the special needs kids . God bless you and Devin Eileen
My son fell asleep on the bus coming home one day last fall, in the back. He slept through all the students getting off the bus. The bus driver was early on his route, so I sat at the end of the drive for over 30 minutes, thinking he was late. I got a call on my cell that when the bus driver got to the garage and parked, Alex’s head popped up! Thank heaven he woke up so the bus driver saw him!
Since that time, because Alex has a tendency to fall asleep on the bus, and to keep an eye on him, he sits in the front seat to the right of the driver, and the driver and I are very specific, with written schedules, about what days he is off bus.
Alex loves riding the bus, I think it might be the best part of his day! He knows all the bus numbers, and if his bus 29 is not there, he has to know why, what is broken on “his” bus! The bus driver knows him so well that he tells him before he can ask now!