4 year old left on the bus

[Huskylover1]

Just heard about this on the news.

A 4 year old boy, gets the bus home from school. He misses his stop. Doesn't alert the driver. Driver gets back to the depot and parks up the bus and leaves. Bus driver has now been sacked for this.

In my book, a 4 year old, is way too young to get the bus home. Especially as there was no parent waiting at the bus stop even! Had there been, the parent would have alerted the bus driver that their son was on board, and needed to get off. Usually, this boy makes his own way home from the bus stop, lets himself in, and his parents arrive home from work, shortly thereafter.

Cue lots of moaning by the parents, that they've been let down. No mention from anyone, that perhaps this little boy shouldn't be making this journey alone.

I just can't fathom, how any parent can thinks it's good judgement to let a 4 year old:

• identify the right school bus to get on
• realise when he needs to get off
• walk from the bus stop to home, and let himself in

Bonkers!

Under the normal system the driver would wait to see that the child has been let into the house
It's a block of flats. How does that work?

If they are not looking for compo, what are they looking for then?

Driver has been sacked. Child is ok.

It might not be unusual in rural areas, but when we lived rurally we made sure our dc got to school and back, because we took them.
The parents didn't do anything wrong as this is how a lot of children travel, apparently.
No way would any of ours been on a bus at this age, school or otherwise.
It shouldn't be up to the driver to responsible for the kids, they are responsible for driving.

a block of flats? In North Kessock? What shite are you chatting.

Compo for emotional distress. Doesn't have to be physical

You won't get very far with that in a Scottish court.

If they are not looking for compo, what are they looking for then?

Contact from the bus company?

Reassurance?

An apology?

The father says himself that the bus company hadn't been in touch to apologise at the time of the article going to press.

I love all the frothing on here from people both not reading and imagining everyone lives exactly as they do. The dad did not say the boy lets himself in he said that his mum gets in 10 minutes after him that does not mean the boy is alone because his dad is already home.

I drive my children to school in an area not a million miles from where this boy lives. Just to reiterate the point that other have made he DOES NOT live in Inverness the depot is there. He lives about 10 miles north of inverness in the arsehole of nowhere just over theee miles from his small country school. If we lived just a bit further from the school my dc would be entitled to school transport and sure as hell would use loads of cars around the school is a nightmare every morning and afternoon.

a block of flats? In North Kessock? What shite are you chatting

From the BBC article

But the bus did not appear near the flats that Friday.

News report on Reporting Scotland now. The dad is saying they’ve gone public with it (it happened a week ago) to call for chaperones on the bus to stop this happening again.

Haven't read all posts but It says in article it's in North Kessock so not really in Inverness (i live here). As far as I know there are no schoolbuses for those in the city but they do exist when a school is a certain distance away or when there is no safe walking route to school (no footpath by the road).
So it sounds like perfectly normal situation.
I have friends whose DC are in P1 and take the schoolbus from the end of their drive similar to this.
Not sure about the letting himself in and parents getting home 10min after? I haven't heard the radio program , but perhaps they don't have a choice (work commitments or maybe it was a one off delay?)

The thing I found odd was that the boy wakes up at night and usually watched tv!! What?! Anyone noticed that? Don't think that's odd?

Just wondered if there is a charge for this school transport. I don't know.

But if this issue grows legs, there will soon have to be a support person who will back up the driver for pick ups and drop offs.

I think that should be a minimum standard anyway these days. Don't mention American school buses now.....!

The thing I found odd was that the boy wakes up at night and usually watched tv!! What?! Anyone noticed that? Don't think that's odd?

That has already been covered.

School transport in Scotland is generally free providing you are attending your catchment school and you live more than a certain distance away.

I can't believe so many people are boiling their judgy pants about a child of school age going on a school bus! In rural communities this is the norm. Roughly a third of pupils at my son's primary school regularly take the bus to or from school. (Rural England here, not Scotland) That's not really the problem in this instance. It's that the proper systems weren't in place to check each child who boarded the bus was safely delivered home.

The thing I found odd was that the boy wakes up at night and usually watched tv!! What?! Anyone noticed that? Don't think that's odd?

Yes it is totally odd and bad parenting.

But if you mention it you'll be told you're a judgy, nasty fucker who was raised by a cunt.- not my words by the way

People may even be hoiking their pants rather than boiling them. Who knows! 😂😂😂

Piff,

thanks for the information on that.

But the bus did not appear near the flats that Friday.

That doesn't automatically make it a block of flats, Mumof56.

"But the bus did not appear near the flats that Friday."

Speaking to STV News, his father, John Robertson Snr, said: "We thought the bus was late because of the weather. My wife phoned the school and there was no answer so we called the bus company.

"They said John had been dropped off at the house but this wasn't the case because I was looking out the window waiting for him. "

Pisacake shame that level of care didn't extend to the other end of the journey really.