Following an after-school trip gone awry, a local school bus driver is frustrated with communication and route scheduling issues she says contributed to a chaotic ride home this week – one which ultimately brought OPP officers to her bus and its antsy passengers.
On Monday afternoon, Lori Bird picked up students from Monsignor Lee Catholic School for her afternoon route, which had been subject to a route change and a modified set of stops beginning that day.
While route modifications are commonplace, Bird said Monday’s changes led to confusion for students and parents alike.
“On Monday, there was every aspect of a change. I had a directional change. I had a stop removed. I had a stop added,” she said. “It's not that it's a big route, and I know the area, but the unfortunate part is … the way the school told the parents, which meant nobody knew about it.”
Bird said parents were notified of the route change through a physical note passed along to students last Friday, which she said led to a number of parents and students not being aware of the change.
“Nobody goes through their kids’ backpacks, especially not older kids,” Bird said.
When Bird began her route, what was formerly the second stop had become the first stop, leading to some students missing their chance to get off the bus.
“A girl came up from the back. She's a Grade 8 student, and she said that she didn't get up to get off,” Bird explained. “I told her that, in that case, I probably would have to take her back to the school, which is the procedure, but I would have called that in (to dispatch), and they would have made that decision, not me.”
However, the student told Bird her mother had been waiting at the stop, who shortly thereafter showed up to the bus to collect her daughter. At this point, Bird checked her route sheet and saw the missed stop was never assigned to the student, so she called dispatch to see what she should do.
“I called in dispatch (and they) said, no, I could not let her off with her mother, that being the procedure,” she said.
At this point, the student became upset, Bird said, but she continued along her route as per protocol, even as more students grew concerned and began disrupting her at the front of the bus.
“I'm trying to make sure I'm looking at my paper (listing student’s stops) and carrying on with the route, and in the meantime other kids are coming up to the front of the bus, which is not allowed,” she said. “Some of them are crying. Some of them are angry. They're all worried – they think I'm kidnapping them – and they actually use those words, that I was kidnapping them.”
About seven upset students had come to the front of the bus, Bird said, and the mother of the first student who missed her stop was following the bus, as well.
“I think they all were working on each other,” Bird said, adding there was one Grade 8 student behaving particularly antagonistically. “He was very verbal through the whole thing, (saying), why wasn't I letting them off? Why wasn't I allowed? Why? Why was I kidnapping them? You know, all these things.”
Some students were crying by this point, and Bird decided to pull the bus over to speak with dispatch.
“I just decided it was too much. I'm going to pull over,” she said. “I pulled over because … I thought this isn't safe.”
Around this time, several students were upset, and Bird said the Grade 8 boy called her a “fucking bitch” numerous times, said he was going to get her fired, and said that he was going to “smoke” her.
Given the situation, Bird asked if dispatch could send the principal to the bus to help calm the situation down.
“I informed them previously that I had pulled over, and she said, yes, they would,” Bird said. “Then the next thing I hear is they called the OPP.”
OPP officers entered the bus and removed the student who threatened Bird, she said, and some students were permitted to vacate the bus with parents who had arrived at the scene. After that, Bird returned students who had missed their stop to the school.
Bird, who has 10 years experience as a school bus driver and said she loves the job, has not driven since Monday.
She raised concerns with how the route change was communicated to parents, which she thinks directly contributed to the rapidly escalating situation on Monday, and she also shared concerns with how bus drivers are scheduled, explaining she does a Brechin route in the morning, and the Monsignor Lee route in the afternoon.
“The morning route typically mirrors the other route, so you do the same school, you may do it a different direction,” she said. “Here it's a cost cutting measure, I'm told by my manager, that they've decided that for whatever reason, and some drivers do drive the same school in the afternoon, but most don't.
“I make connections with my morning bus kids, they're on my bus much longer. It's a country route. I'm on country roads. I know everybody's name on that route, and I don't think the situation on Monday was my fault, personally – it was a series of events that led up to it," she explained.
Officials from the Simcoe County Student Transportation Consortium did not respond to a request for comment.
Donna Lorenz, communications specialist with Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board, confirmed students were given paper notices of the route change on Monday – a move she said is unusual in today’s day and age.
Lorenz said the notes originated from the transportation consortium, adding it’s “not the preferred way of communicating,” and said the school board will speak with the consortium about implementing electronic communications, which has become standard practice at the board’s schools.
“We moved away from notes in backpacks years ago, so … that's something that we would prefer,” she said.
Lorenz said a communication was sent to parents following the incident, which highlighted protocol for students who miss their bus stops.
