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!

Can I just say, that people saying the Highlands are getting the wrong picture. This was in Inverness, which is classed as a City. It's not akin to a scene from Braveheart.

A city in the Highlands. Nobody suggested that they were halfway up Ben Nevis.

As for the father's whereabouts, the BBC article is unequivocal that the father was waiting at home for the boy and that his parents usually take him to school by car, but the car had broken down.

Had a parent been at the bus stop, this wouldn't have happened.

How does that follow? We don't know that the bus simply didn't just drive straight past the bus stop.

The driver may not have dropped anyone off there.

That's another confirmation, that there was NO parent at the bus stop

Nothing wrong with that. The bus stop appears to be within a short distance of the front door.

THEY ARE NOT IN FUCKING INVERNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing wrong with using a school bus at four the entire continent of America do it.

Calm down everyone. It’s a school bus not a normal public bus. It’s a minibus hired specifically to take a small group of children from their home address to their school and back. Staff and parents put them on and collect them off the bus. It’s a perfectly responsible way to get your child to school. The driver massively messed up and it is right that the responsibility for driving those children to school should be removed from him as a consequence

The depot was in the “City” of Inverness but the school and drop off was in the Black Isle, fairly rural.

THEY ARE NOT IN FUCKING INVERNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL. Get her telt.

Where do you live, OP?

*This isn't a rural Scottish isle.

Inverness is a City. It's not a small town. It's not rural. It's the Capital of the Highlands and ranks as a CITY.*

Have you ever actually been to the Black Isle?

This thread is the best example I have ever seen of people making up shit and frothing about it.

It was a bloody school bus OP. At least read the articles from a non-Daily Mail source.

Calm down everyone. It’s a school bus not a normal public bus.

Welcome to everyone else's 20 minutes ago, Snowy.

Feel free to read the article:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-42365641

I suspect Husky has never been north of Hadrian's Wall .

Ah well. AIBU then.

But honestly, the Dad said on air today, that the boy was scheduled to be at home and let himself in, 10 minutes before the parents got home. So they weren't at the bus stop, that's for sure.

I wouldn't have done that with mine when they were 4.

Husky are you in Inverness? If so, then you'll know parts of it are rural. The primary school is almost twenty minutes away from the city centre, across the Beauly Firth.

You'll also know that school buses regularly take school children home. That's their purpose
And that school buses tend to stop where they need to stop which usually isn't a bus stop but a mutually agreed place.
I've no idea why you are sensationalising this.

Inverness is officially a city, but its population density is really low (population density in the nearest city to me is nearly 200x higher). I wouldn't be surprised if a school in a place like that might need buses for some of its pupils.

It's a school minibus. It operates like a taxi. Specially trained drivers are responsible for the kids, hence the sacking. No bus stops involved. Dad was waiting for him. Normal in spread out rural communities. Why are so many people so hard of thinking that they hear a few details and completely misinterpret things.

Lipstick - I am talking about a different child, a toddler, who is with police now while they try to find his parents. I'm not talking about the school boy

Prickly I actually live in Scotland.

It’s a school minibus- not a regular bus. Driver should have checked the seats, parents should have phoned the bus company.

Even if we ignore the fact his school and home weren’t in Inverness, I am roaring at the emphasis of Inverness as a city. Have you ever been to Inverness OP? There are probably small towns in England that are bigger.

But also, the depot is in the city, the school is not.

Nobody said the Black Isle was a rural Scottish Isle, it's not even an island for goodness sake.
The boy was NOT in Inverness

Staff and parents put them on and collect them off the bus

From the BBC article

His father was waiting for John at home

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

There was no bus stop for parents to be waiting at,it’s a school bus,door to door. Common in rural Scotland

No bus stops involved. Dad was waiting for him

That's not what Dad said today on R5L. He said that he was due home ten minutes after the boy would have been home. So this boy had a key to let himself in.