Story of the Day 9/19/2008

The bus ride home.

Sarah rides a bus provided by Washington Township.

At the end of eth school day, numerous buses lien up at the various buildings at ISD and await the release of the students.
These buses come from al over. Although, for the further school districts, some fo which are two hours or more away, pick up is only on Friday, because the students only have an option of dorming at the school- as opposed to being given a daily ride home.

Some school systems only have one or two children, so they only go to that building. Other districts have many kids, and make a circuit- first preschool, then Elementary, and finally a pickup at the building housing Middle School and High School.
And a very few have so many students that they have more than one bus.

Our township has two buses.
There really are not so many students as to require two buses, but our township is shaped like a long piece of pasta- and one bus takes hours to drop them all off.
So, the two buses are divided into an east side route and a west side route.

Normally, Sarah is home by 3:50 PM. This is having been let out at 3:15. This is good. During some of the years when the re was one bus with a long route, and Sarah was a lot younger, she couldn’t last the ride because of needing to go to the bathroom. And , no, there is no bathroom on the bus.

But, yesterday, which was a half day, she didn’t get home. School, on a half day, lets out at 12:30 or 12:15. And I do mean or. I have no idea why, but the half days seem to vary more than the full days.
So, I expect her home , at the latest, a little after 1. Well, 1 came and went. 1:15 came and went.
I thought “traffic must be heavy.”
1:30 came and went.
1:45….and , of course, there is no one picking up the phone a transportation.
Finally, about 4 minutes before 2, Sarah arrives home.

Confused and upset.

So, she tells me the story.

The bus picked her up.
It drove past our street.
It went to drop off a girl.
No one was home.
The driver spoke on the radio.
Sarah assumes he was asking transportation to contact the parents.
They waited.
The bus drove back past our street.
The bus drove back to the Deaf School.
It dropped off the girl.
It waited there.
Finally, it drove Sarah home. (not just Sarah…but also Aries, as they were the last two on the bus.)

Of course, if Sarah could hear, or if the bus driver could sign, we might know a little bit more.
Sarah was very upset he didn’t’ just drop her off, since he drove past our block.
This is why she is both confused and upset.

Okay, so I am also confused.
But I am also happy I am not the parents of that little girl- I suspect her story is the real Story of the Day.
Because, since dropping her back at the Deaf School was the priority, she was obviously never supposed to have been put on the bus……