Bus driver forces 11-year-old girl to walk home in Currituck County

There should be an immediate apology from the school and the driver and some discipline. You don't abandon a child to walk home. Maybe the family needs to hire an attorney?

Who's judgement call would it have been if this girl had been picked up,molested or worse killed.Does the bus driver not read the paper or watch TV news?Could there have been a way to contact her parents that she was walking home?

The comments with the exception of the "attorney" is definately understandable. This girl is 11, and if she was going to take the later bus, why didn't the parents notice she wasn't home? Or try to call? If I was the bus driver, and found this to be "odd" for her to be riding home late, I'd probably use my "cell" phone we all have them now... or radio to get the parents a phone call. The cities in the area all have different bus stops in the evening. Blood can't just be on the "bus driver's hands", it should be shared w/the parents. Oh... the fact she has "blisters, what type of shoes was she wearing? I've been seeing children wearing "wedges" her age. Our children don't walk enough but I again am very concerned the driver didnt' try to make a call if the girl was uneasy. I know this sounds harsh but lawsuits aren't going to help. If your child stays after school, maybe they should learn to call and stay in the office until you pick them up. Inconvenient vs safety.

that was a bad jusdgment call on the bus driver . It was clear the girl was uneasy so she should have @ least try to call her parents or take her home. What if the girl was abducted or raped. I am glad that was not my daughter on that bus because all he-- would break loose

This bus driver wouldn't need to worry about driving anything for a while if this was my daughter.

I agree with the "Concerned Parent" comments. Walking a mile and a half is nothing. Children do that and more on the weekends! However, the bus driver is RESPONSIBLE for every child that rides. Why would it have killed the driver to drive another mile. It would have taken two minutes. Is he or she that lazy, or just in a hurry to get home and what their shows! People, driving a school bus is a JOB!!! If you do not like your job (a few hours you drive Mon-Fri)....get another one. Take pride in your job and be a little more proactive.
Safety is everyones business. The parents should have been a little more proactive too. You know your child is late.....why didn't you start making phone calls, or get in your car and drive the bus route????

Come on people, let common sense take over!!

Thank you

I live in Currituck County. Late buses drop kids of at a designated stop that is centralized to an area(not in your driveway). Isn't it the parents job to know how the late bus works? The bus driver was doing her job. Maybe the parents should do theirs as well.

I think the bus driver should have allowed the girl to call her parents to come pick her up and wait a few minutes for them to arrive.

It was also the parents responsibility to know the bus schedules.

Why didn't she take her normal bus?

So lets see, Parents do not have to know the rules or be responsible for their kids anymore. God forbid the parents were proactive and contacted the school to see what the rules are for the late buses. You say it is their job and it was only a couple of miles up the road, so the bus driver should drop off every student that rides the late bus to their house no matter if it may take them another 2 ot 3 hours to do it. if that is the case please work for me. I will pay you for 40 hours of work and you can work 60hours because it is your job and it is no big deal. Take resposibility for your own situations. I can tell you I would have called the school before my child was home to find out where he was, long before he arrived from walking.

First of all, I don't have children nor do I intend to. Second of all, I believe that parents tend to not take enough personal responsibility. That being said, the bus driver was WRONG WRONG WRONG. Regardless of how the late bus operates, you have the welfare of a child in your care and you never put a child in that situation. Shame on them.

Man, what is this world coming to?
The school should change the rules for
late buses after school.
Come on people she was 11 years old. Some
stranger could have picked up that girl and
do bad things to her and she might not make
it home at all!!!!
I think the parents of this little girl
should sue the school system for the girl's
suffing.
The school system should change how they let
little kids off on the late bus home.
WAKE UP THIS COULD BE YOUR KID!!! One min.
the kid is here and than the next min. the kid
is not here anymore. What is the school going
to do when a kid ends up dead?? It would be their
fault to.......
That is all I have to say... Wake up people!!!!

Rules are Rules.... I guess, but common sense should always be the deciding factor. A simple phone call to school or home on behalf of the child would have prevented this entire situation. If something had happened to this child what would school officials have to say then. Reciting the rules wouldn't have seem appropriate, would it. I thank God that nothing worst than sore feets occurred.

Anyone who has a child in the Currituck County School System should know that the late buses don't run the same routes. I have 3 kids in the school system, and while certainly not a perfect system, all the bus routes have been posted since before the school year started on the school system web site INCLUDING the stops for the late buses.

When do parents in this county start taking responsibility for their own kids? These are OUR kids, the school did not give birth to them. The bus driver took the poor girl to the bus stop for the late bus. WHERE WERE HER PARENTS? They couldn't have driven 1 1/2 miles to go to the bus stop and wait for their daughter? Come on. They didn't think anything might be amiss when she didn't come home on time?????

The school put the information out for everyone to have access to -- it's our jobs as parents to know this stuff.

This story was so poorly written. Please take the time to look over the story before you publish it. This is horrible. Ideas are being told all over the place.

the bus driver should be fired!!

the bus driver should be fired!!!!

If this is county policy then the parents should have known this. The students get a handbook at the beginning of the school year. If this is not addressed in the handbook then surely it should be. If this had been my child I would have called the school to see what time she'd be home and check where she'd be dropped off. True this should never happen again and thank God she's alright. This story makes the bus driver look like she did something wrong. I'd like to know if this is the usual spot that the bus drops children off that ride the late bus. I'm wondering why she was purple in the face. Does she have a heart or pulmunary condition?

theresa338 wrote:

HIRE AN LAWYER! GO TO THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS ****!

Wow... a lot of you on here seem to think that the parents should hire a lawyer and sue... for what, by the way?! The girl arrived home safely, no harm came to her (unless you think they can collect on the blisters she received as a result of the parents purchasing improperly fitting shoes). So will they be suing for what COULD have happened to her? Wouldn't that be nice if we could all do that anytime we think that we or the ones we love COULD have been harmed in any given situation. We'd all be filthy rich!! Nice. Then all the lawyer happy people that have posted their opinions on this site would never have to work again - they can just make their way through life riding on the coat tails of other people's mistakes. Since so many people have responded that the school (or driver) should be sued for making a mistake that could have endangered that young lady, then I'm voting that we should also sue the PARENTS of that child because their failure to take the time to check into the late bus policy contributed the most to this situation - in fact, it CREATED this situation. I'm amazed how many of you didn't miss the opportunity to point the finger at the driver and the school system and made absolutely NO mention of the parents. I'm assuming it is because you yourself are a LAZY parent who expects the rest of the world to watch over and raise your children so that you don't have to??
I'm the parent of two children and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that if this had happened to my child, I would be MORTIFIED..... at MYSELF! Yes, I would be disappointed that the driver didn't make an exception to come by house this once to drop my child off and make sure that I clearly understood that I made a mistake, but I would in no way feel like the driver OWED me this or that I should "sue the pants" off of everyone because I failed to read the policy. If I'm an ignorant parent who is utilizing an extra school amenity like a late bus (boy, I wish we had something like that in my hometown!) and take full advantage of this extra amenity that the school picks up the tab for but fail to even take notice of any of the rules that apply to using this amenity, then I'm just STUPID. Not the school, not the driver, ME.
And my gosh, please spare me the part of the story about blisters and the physical trauma this young lady suffered. We always lived at the end of dirt roads about a mile long my entire childhood (and no, I'm not talking about "way back in the day," I'm talking the 1990s) and I was expected to walk to AND from the bus stop every day... me and ALL my stuff (backpacks, band instruments, etc.). So yeah, this story clearly could have done without the details of how this child is practically disabled now because she had to walk a mile for the first time in her life. Come on! Throwing this kind of exaggerated nonsense into the story just makes the parents look even more dramatic than they already did.
Shame on any of you that felt like this was all the driver and the school system's fault - and good luck to your children because I'm sure that their well-being through their childhood will be up to anyone standing nearby so that you won't have to watch over them yourself.

Totally UNSAT!!! Late bus or not that is no excuse for not doing what they are suppose to do as far as childrens's safety. Whomever the bus driver was should have taken the time to find out where the child lived. If it was up to me the driver would be fired!!!