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AIBU?

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Original poster

4 year old left on the bus

443 replies

Huskylover1 · 15/12/2017 20:22

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!

OP posts:
ButchyRestingFace · 15/12/2017 22:45

"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. "

I do say "house" when I mean "flat" though.

But not the other way around. #aspirationsofgrandeur Confused

RB68 · 15/12/2017 22:48

Midlands here and my DDs primary had school buses for 4 to 11 yr olds but they had supervisor adults and no child was allowed to leave the bus without an adult known to the Transport Asst. They also make sure seatbelts etc are used. But there is no law that says that there must be a TA and it looks like they are losing them for the journey.

It is unusual to have buses for primary kids BUT it is essential in country areas where travel to school is the norm (between villages) and often there are small numbers of students that travel this way - the problem was the bus company driver didn't follow protocol and clearly had no list or other information about who to drop where nor was there any communication to parents about route changes and so on. They noticed straight away he wasn't dropped off and immediately looked if he had been dropped elsewhere and started a search and contacted police - I think the issue here is a safeguarding one and it is a grey area in terms of who is responsible for the child on the bus - technically its the parent!! Our council only accepts resp for the child when they reach and leave school even though they contract and pay for the bus service. Then they wonder why they have a huge issue with parking and safety around schools.

tabulahrasa · 15/12/2017 22:50

"His father should have been waiting where the bus stops, not at home"

That's the same place...

School transport buses don't stop at public bus stops, they stop outside the house.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 15/12/2017 22:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn because it quoted a deleted post.

crunchymint · 15/12/2017 22:52

I am not aware of any blocks of flats there. And when I look online, I can't find any flats at all there.

LipstickHandbagCoffee · 15/12/2017 22:52

I reported the McCann comment I hope is deleted

Mumof56 · 15/12/2017 22:58

@tabulahrasa

"His father should have been waiting where the bus stops, not at home"

That's the same place

School transport buses don't stop at public bus stops, they stop outside the house

I know. That's why "I said where the bus stops" not "at the public bus stop" Wink

crunchymint · 15/12/2017 23:04

So wait outside the house for 30 minutes, instead of being inside and seeing the bus when it stops right outside your house?

And of course transport is going to be delayed up there with the snow.

cathyclown · 15/12/2017 23:05

No need to report anything I think. It was just a comment.

Let it go.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 15/12/2017 23:08

No need to report anything I think. It was just a comment.

That MNHQ have deleted...

Confuzzlediddled · 15/12/2017 23:09

We went on holiday to North Kessock last year, (lovely caravan park I'd recommend it if you want a quiet, peaceful break!) there are absolutely definitely no blocks of flats there, they were celebrating getting a lottery machine in the shop when we were there!

LipstickHandbagCoffee · 15/12/2017 23:10

By all means set your own line,judge when it’s crossed, I’ll do likewise
For me the McCann comment crossed the line. No apologies for that

ButchyRestingFace · 15/12/2017 23:10

No need to report anything I think. It was just a comment.

It was a jawdroppingly offensive, inappropriate, irrelevant comment.

If the "report" function isn't for reporting that sort of thing, what is it for? Confused

I didn't report btw, but only because I imagine MNHQ's "switchboard" was probably already lit up like a Christmas tree.

muddlingalong42 · 15/12/2017 23:13

It's a school mini bus not a regular bus which was supposed to drop him at his door. So not quite the same as a 4 yr old getting a regular bus. Driver clearly at fault here.

MynewnameisKy · 15/12/2017 23:33

* , I do remember a teacher once telling me, that quite a few children had got on the wrong bus.*

What exactly do the teachers do? Ds gets the bus from his school. There are two buses and a register for each. The register for each bus is checked before they leave school. and then they use it to work out the bill for each child.

RebelRogue · 15/12/2017 23:35

I can't believe how many people can't read and when they manage to,they totally fail to understand what they have read.

Puremince · 16/12/2017 00:01

Mumof56 "flats" doesn't necessarily mean "block of flats". I don't know what sort of house the boy was in, but I do know the general area and there are some two storey properties - there are two front doors side by side, one goes into the downstairs property, and the other goes into the stairs to the upstairs property.

I've lived in this set up myself. In my part of Scotland, these are known as flats with low doors i.e. there is no communal front door, or communal hall, each has their own ground level front door.

It's a huge jump to think that someone living in a flat lives in a block of flats.

Mumof56 · 16/12/2017 00:03

It's a huge jump to think that someone living in a flat lives in a block of flats

What's the collective noun for more than 1 flat?

Puremince · 16/12/2017 00:07

It's just a flat. I lived in a flat with a low door, and I definitely didn't live in a block of flats.

Puremince · 16/12/2017 00:09

I know that this happened in the Black Isle, and not in Inverness, but there are several terraces in Inverness which have one-up, one down flats with low doors.

Mumof56 · 16/12/2017 00:09

It's just a flat. I lived in a flat with a low door, and I definitely didn't live in a block of flats

www.myenglishgrammar.com/list-3-collective-nouns.html
According to this it's block.

pisacake · 16/12/2017 00:14

it could be like a 'cottage flat'

www.tulloch-homes.com/finder/house/ashie

Not a 'block of flats'

Puremince · 16/12/2017 00:15

But if you google the definition of "block of flats" it's a large building divided into apartments. I lived in a flat, but I didn't live in a large building building divided into apartments. I lived in a different sort of flat.

Puremince · 16/12/2017 00:22

Yes, more the sort of thing pisacake has linked to - would you describe that as a "block of flats" ? I wouldn't.

^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?^

It works in exactly the same way as a detached or semi-detached or terraced house - the child walks up to the front door and the driver watches the parent open the front door and the child go in.

Mumof56 · 16/12/2017 00:29

it could be like a 'cottage flat'

Yes. And the collective noun for more than 1 flat is a block. Even "cottage flats". more than 1 is a block.

Yes, more the sort of thing pisacake has linked to - would you describe that as a "block of flats" ? I wouldn't

Yes and so would English grammar.

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