The school bus is there to make life easier for parents. For many, pick-up and drop-off times conflict with work or other obligations — that’s when the bus comes in handy.
One family tried to take advantage of these benefits but appeared to be unfairly targeted by the school bus driver.
A concerned mom said that the school bus driver repeatedly skipped her autistic son’s stop.
“My son is in eighth grade and is autistic,” she wrote in her Reddit post. “We decided to use the bus for the first time this year to make mornings easier with an infant now added to the mix.”
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While this should have made things simpler for the family, it only made it more difficult.
“So far his bus driver has only picked him up a handful of times. She’ll just skip his stop,” she continued. “I’ve had to load the baby up and drop him off late to school six times now.”
“I spoke with the school about it so his lateness is excused, and I use the bus app so it shows the bus’ GPS and that she is skipping his stop,” she said. “But yesterday she didn’t bring my son home.”
According to his mom, the bus driver blew by her son’s bus stop completely.
“She drove her usual route but my son ended up texting me that she skipped our neighborhood,” she recounted. “When he informed (the bus driver), she told him she wasn’t turning around and we would have to pick him up at the school.”
The mom did everything in her power to make sure the proper people knew about the incident.
“I called the school, and they spoke with the bus driver who said she did drive him to his stop and he just refused to get off,” she said. “However, in the app, it shows she did skip his stop.”
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The mom also called the bus helpline who was able to confirm that the bus driver was lying.
“That was yesterday,” she added. “This morning she skipped his stop again, and I called the bus help line again, and they ended up having her finish her high school route then come back and take him to school almost two hours late.”
Commenters suggested that this may be a case of discrimination.
While this mom is at a loss as to why this is happening to her son, Redditors thought they had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
“It sounds an awful lot to me like this bus driver is discriminating against a disabled child, which is not a good look for her, the bus company, or the school district,” one user said.
A second commenter added, “It’s not like this has happened once or twice, it’s a recurring issue and is getting in the way of your son’s education and you’re worried about possible discrimination.”
This woman’s son is entitled to his education.
As many mentioned in the comments, the school bus driver is getting in the way of this boy receiving his education. Whether she knows it or not, his right to that is protected.
The U.S. Department of Education says“The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children.”
Because of IDEA, this school bus driver is technically breaking the law and could be punished for doing such. She must be informed of the seriousness of her actions.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
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