Kids dropped off at wrong bus stop
Mom furious that children’s pleas were ignored as girls put off bus in unfamiliar area
A Hamilton mother is fuming after a school bus driver kicked her young daughters off the bus at a stop the girls insisted was not their new drop-off point.
Melanie Guerin says her daughters Sophia Wahbi, 5, and Avalee Golini, 10, were abandoned at the corner of Ottawa Street and Edinburgh Avenue, in unfamiliar surroundings. Guerin was told the bus driver insisted this was the right stop and she yelled at them to get off.
The girls, who attend Notre Dame elementary in the French board Conseil Scolaire Catholique Mon Avenir, were supposed to be dropped off at a house on Campbell Avenue where their new afterschool care provider lives.
“My daughter Ava told the driver I don’t know where we are. We’re supposed to be at the daycare house, but I don’t see the house. But the driver said this is the right address.”
But the girls did not know where they were and headed in the opposite direction. “They started asking strangers if they knew where their new daycare person lived,” Guerin says. “My children were so scared.” Guerin learned of the situation while she was at work because Avalee’s friend, still on the bus, had a cellphone and texted her.
“I was at work. I left panicking, trying to find them,” she says.
Guerin had informed bus consortium Francobus of the change at the start of school and was assured everything was in order. But she has since learned the information was never passed on to the bus company contracted for that route, she says.
Guerin called the board director and Francobus’ supervisor Tuesday morning but insists she didn’t hear back from them until after the media called them about this situation. (A Francobus technician told her if the driver was removed, there was no one to drive the bus, she says.)
She also went to see Notre Dame’s principal and staff and says they were as upset as she was. “They were horrified by the situation.”
The principal called the board and the consortium in Guerin’s presence.
“We asked that by the end of this day, that everything be resolved, and she — the principal — also said she doesn’t feel safe with this bus driver,” Guerin says.
MonAvenir spokesperson Catherine Audet said the board “is fully cognizant of the emotional impact … on the children and their parents, and will continue to advocate on their behalf.”
“This situation is completely unacceptable and the CSC MonAvenir has requested that an investigation take place immediately,” Audet said.
The school board also insisted upon the immediate removal of the driver in question.
Francobus director Nancy Bouchard confirmed that by Tuesday afternoon that the school bus company involved had removed the driver from the girls’ route, had reprimanded her, and was retraining her.
“The driver said it was a very bad judgment call … that she thought the oldest could take care of the little one. She did show remorse,” Bouchard said.
Guerin, however, is concerned the bus driver is going to be given another route and doesn’t think the board, consortium and bus company are taking the situation seriously enough.
“I believe this lady should be charged with neglect and abandonment, and she should not be left in charge of children.”
They started asking strangers if they knew where their new daycare person lived.