Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505260057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A driver ordered the Stonewall Jackson Middle School students off before their bus completed its route because he had been given the wrong location for the stop, said Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations.
The students told the driver, who was substituting on the route on short notice, that it was the wrong place.
But he did not listen to them because school policy prohibits substitute drivers from relying on students for the location of stops, Kelley said Thursday.
Dee Ann Gray, mother of one student, said the driver should have radioed the dispatcher to make sure that he had the right stop.
"Why didn't the man call in and check when the children told him it was the wrong place?'' she said.
Gray said she is not satisfied with the school system's explanation of what happened, but there is nothing else she can do.
"My daughter still has to ride the bus, but I will be looking for her if she's late," she said.
Several students gave conflicting statements Thursday about whether the driver used abusive language when he told them to get off, Kelley said.
Gray said Wednesday that the children told her that the driver used profanity. Kelley said some students said during interviews with school officials that he did not, but others said he did.
The children were put off the bus at Horne's Food Market, about a half-mile north of Abbott's Restaurant (formerly Garden City Cafe), the only official stop on the route.
There is also a second unofficial stop at Garden City Baptist Church, farther south on Garden City Boulevard, where the bus turns around and some children get off, Kelley said.
"The regular driver lets some get off there as a convenience, even though it is not an official stop," he said.
The driver in Wednesday's incident is a regular driver on another route who was dispatched from home to fill in on the Garden City route. He did not have time to go to the transportation center to get a written copy of the route sheet and stops, which substitute drivers are supposed to do before they begin a trip.
Kelley said that a dispatcher told the driver that there was only one stop on Garden City Boulevard - at Horne's Food Market. When he reached the store, he thought that all of the children were supposed to get off there, Kelley said.
But the dispatcher confused the route with a second Garden City route from the Jackson school that does stop at Horne's, Kelley said. Both buses take children from Jackson to Garden City with no intervening stops.
"The dispatcher had the wrong information. That is what caused it," Kelley said.
Dispatchers stay busy with 125 buses in the school system fleet, he said, but he has asked the transportation department to review procedures so all substitute drivers will have written instructions on stops in the future.
Kelley said school officials have also talked with the driver in the Garden City incident and reminded him that drivers should never use abusive language with children.
Chauncey Logan, transportation supervisor, said the driver is not the type of person who would use profanity with children.
by CNB