The 15 hours between this post and my most recent run-in with District 150 will at least make the post more reasonable - which may or may not be a good thing. It seems that I am not the only one who has had issues recently and unfortunately this has not been the only incident.
It seems that my six year old's school didn't think my job was going to be frightening enough for Halloween this year. As on every other Friday, my ex picks up Savannah on Fridays - therefore she goes to the latchkey program at the school. This has never been an issue before (and we are 3 months into the school year).
On this particular Friday I received a call at work from my ex stating that he was at the school to pick Savannah up and she was not there. This was about 5 p.m. (School gets out at 3:15). The school could come up with no explanation - only a latchkey attendant that stated Savannah didn't show up at latchkey. Of course, I immediately wanted to leave work - but instead decided to stay and use the multiple phone lines to call everyone I could. After many phone calls on both ends (including the school attempting to call the bus driver - who was unable to be reached, yet still not back to the bus barn) we learned that Savannah had ridden the bus to my house. Of course, nobody was home (although if the bus would have been anywhere near on time, her sister would have been home). A few more phone calls found Savannah at her father's neighbor's house. She had gotten off the bus at my house and found nobody home. So she walked (about half a mile) to her father's house - to also find an empty house. Luckily, she thought to go to his neighbor's house - who then called him. This was almost 5:30. The bus usually drops Savannah off at 3:45 (although they have been very inconsistent without explanation lately). So - she walked across very busy roads, in the late fall afternoon - from an empty house - to an empty house - without any adult being aware she was even missing. At age 6.
Of course, my initial reaction was to immediately pull her out of school and join the home-school club until I could get out of district. I believe I will settle down to driving her to school and picking her up every day and actively seeking a new house in a district that is not in Peoria.
The explanation is a multitude of communication errors and a very poorly organized and run transportation system for the largest school system in Central Illinois. There have been complaints and problems and I'm sure many traumatized children and yet, nothing changes.
The sequence of events that led to Savannah's "adventure" was as follows:
Her class had a Halloween party so the kids were very rowdy with extra parents at the end of the day. When the teacher was calling names for latchkey, Savannah either didn't hear her name called or it wasn't called. When she raised her hand to tell the teacher, the teacher told all of the kids to put their hands down and be quiet - so, she did.
She then got on the bus and made an attempt to tell the bus driver she shouldn't be on the bus. She said the bus driver was too busy talking to "the lady" and wouldn't listen. She then had multiple friends of hers on the bus attempt to tell the bus driver - they had the same results.
She got off the bus at her regular bus stop, scared and upset - thinking she was going to be in trouble. She eventually made it to an adult, but not without a lot of potential for really bad things to happen.
The latchkey people made no attempt to see where Savannah was, despite the fact that the latchkey fee had been paid in the morning and Savannah is always at latchkey on Fridays.
Again (multiple times), the transportation system had an issue with number of bus drivers so multiple bus routes were combined into one bus - making the bus very late (again, I say).
The school was unable to reach the bus driver to see if Savannah had ridden the bus because - "He didn't have a cell phone." And 2.5 hours after leaving the grade school, the bus still had not returned to the bus barn.
This time, Savannah is okay - though frightened. She will not ride a District 150 again. As soon as possible, she will not attend a District 150 school again. I do not blame the teacher or the school - but the system is not safe. There are too many kids in too many classes on too few busses with not enough regulation.
Savannah was not the first District 150 student with such an issue. And it was not our first issue with the bus. But it will be our last... and I hope the right people do something before a child is really missing, injured, kidnapped or killed.
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