An incident that took place last week during the morning Southland school bus route in the community of Riversong has resulted in an apology to parents and action taken by Southland Transportation.
Shelly Campbell and Jacki El Hommossany are two Cochrane mothers who were less than pleased following an incident that took place March 4 and have made their concerns clear through communication with various media outlets and social media platforms.
Campbell told the Eagle that school bus #202 (normally bus #208) picked up a group of school-aged children (many of which were Kindergarten students, including her own six-year-old) from a bus stop in Riversong, to be transported to Glenbow Elementary and Mitford Middle School.
After reassuring waiting parents that this was the correct bus to transport their children, it was El Hommossany who was driving her son in her vehicle when she observed her daughter (who attends Kindergarten at Glenbow) among a group of children at a different bus stop, several blocks away.
She immediately pulled over and was surprised to learn that the bus that had picked the children up at their regular bus stop had then dropped them off a few blocks down the road — without any adult supervision and in temperatures reported to have been around minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Both women immediately contacted Rocky View Schools (RVS) transportation, their respective schools and Southland Transportation for answers as to why a transfer under such circumstances had taken place.
Murray Glass, general manager of Southern Alberta for Southland Transportation, spoke with the Eagle — emphasizing that ‘we are taking this incident very seriously’.
“It made me sick when I heard about this,” said Glass. “We apologize to all parents…it’s completely against our protocol that these students were left there (at a busy bus stop).”
Glass said bus-to-bus transfers occasionally take place, but only when the relief bus pulls up for children to exit off one bus and immediately board another.
“We transport 50,000 kids a day…an incident like this one is extremely rare,” he said, adding that this would be used for their re-training purposes. “We are driven by safety here at Southland — it’s our first core value.”
Glass confirmed that a swift investigation had taken place and there were consequences for those involved.
Both Campbell and El Hommossany immediately contacted Southland dispatch following the incident and both were left with the distinct impression that Southland was more concerned with ensuring buses remained on schedule over safety.
Both also expressed concerns over whether or not Southland drivers were provided lists of names of children on their routes, as this is common practice for many school divisions Southland services.
Audrey Bloxham is the director of transportation for Rocky View Schools (RVS).
Bloxham was able to confirm that it is RVS protocol to provide an updated monthly list of names for urban buses and more frequent lists for rural routes — as the addition or deletion of rural riders has the ability to impact the route for the driver.
She said that this situation was clearly ‘a poor decision on the part of the driver’ and that she has never seen this happen in her 25 years with RVS.
In addition to class lists, Southland drivers are strongly encouraged to ensure students carry their bus pass cards, which students are supposed to present when boarding the bus — although as the year goes on, drivers do become more familiar with the children on their route and they cannot refuse bus service to a child who forgets their pass.
