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!

So they weren't at the bus stop, that's for sure.

I don't believe there was ever any suggestion that they were at the bus stop.

According to the article on the BBC, the father was waiting at home for the boy.

Absolutely fair enough that this is not something you would do with your child, but the fact that these parents made a different choice doesn't make them negligent.

DDs school in Glasgow has P1s traveling without additional supervision on a school coach, pretty sure the Gaelic school does pickups and drop offs over the whole city too.

I'd be pissed off with the bus driver, but the parents didn't do anything wrong.

Husky, my nieces had to go to school by ferry and bus when they were kids (admittedly that was secondary - the island had a primary with about 8 kids in it in total, and they used to walk the mile and a half there and back from a very young age)! Yes, Inverness is the regional capital (and only major hospital - my sister once had to be airlifted there in a medical emergency), but it's tiny. The north of Scotland is a very different place to the rest of the UK. And once you're over the Beauly Firth, all the towns and villages are very small indeed.

Maybe we should organise a MN trip to Inverness . . .

You mean the radio interview that only you appear to have heard op? And quite possibly misinterpreted?

Strangely, the estate I lived on at the time, had a lot of sahm's with cars, and yet they still put 5 year olds on the bus!! Why??

It's a very bad idea, from an environmental point of view and in terms of traffic, for numerous people to be driving to drop off kids at school or collect them afterwards, when one bus might do the job equally well. Being a SAHM doesn't mean you shouldn't use collective transport as and when you can...like everyone else.

It was a minibus for a very small number of kids in a very rural area, not a huge bus with a tiny toddler all alone on it, who was expected to get off at a bog standard bus stop and walk through town to a housing estate. The driver failed to notice he was there - perhaps because it wasn't a regular thing. A bit like the tragic cases of parents who leave their kids in the car, often when part of the everyday routine changes slightly.

There are a lot of hasty judgemental posts on here...

Absolutely fair enough that this is not something you would do with your child, but the fact that these parents made a different choice doesn't make them negligent

They weren't bothered enough to go down to the front door. That'd be too much effort.

Jesus, it's not hard to work this out.

The boy lives in North Kessock (population 921 so hardly a bloody city).

He gets a private, designated school bus to his primary school in Munlochy - a 10 minute journey away.

The bus driver forgets he is on the bus and drives past his house, then goes back to the depot, in Inverness. He then doesn't check the bus and leaves the boy on the bus. Boy very resourcefully tries to find his way home. Dad is meantime frantically phoning round school and police.

The fact that some people can turn this into a judgefest is absolutely beyond me.

Crunchymint This thread is the best example I have ever seen of people making up shit and frothing about it
That’s fuckin priceless, I’m stealin that expression

The place his school is, Munloch is a village surrounded by very rural areas.

Sounds like the type of minibus my DP got to school in primary. Small number of kids and the minibus went different routes depending on which kids were on the bus. Because in most cases you had to turn up a small lane to get to an actual house, and then turn round and go back down the same lane. So no bus stop, and even as parents if you are standing outside, you would not see the bus as it would not go that way unless it was dropping off a kid.

THE PARENTS IN NO WAY CAUSED THIS SITUATION

There was no bus stop for parents to be waiting at

I hope this is not a response to my post above it. Because mine says "where the bus stops" unless they launch the children out of a moving vehicle...

Thanks lipstick [grin}

I actually feel sorry for the sacked driver.

I'm also in Scotland. Less than 30 minutes by train to Glasgow - which is a much bigger city than Inverness - and the children from the village school here get collected from, and dropped off, at their homes by school minibuses. As pp have already pointed out, it's more like a taxi service than a bus service. In the rural areas served by these school buses there usually aren't any bus stops anyway!

The BUS DEPOT is in Inverness. The PRIMARY SCHOOL is about 10 miles outside Inverness. The child's home is about half way between the two.

Does this make it clearer?

Perfectly normal for a P1 to take the school bus. NOT normal for the bus driver to fail to notice there is still a child on the bus when they get to the depot

I assume the depot is on the Longman (Industrial estate near the Kessock Bridge), so the child hadn't actually walked very far before being found. Still a massive failing on the part of the bus company

You mean the radio interview that only you appear to have heard op?

I'm sure 1000's heard it. Shame none of them are on MN tonight.
It's what the dad said. It's what jumped out at me, as really, really odd.

Ah well.

My sympathies are with the bus driver who has lost his job now a week before Christmas.

The child was alright despite everything. But I am a bit puzzled by it all just the same.

That's not what Dad said today on R5L.

I'm sure you'll appreciate why posters are going by the information contained in the BBC article linked to, and not a radio interview that only you appear to have heard.

If you have a link to an article where the father says nobody was at home, that might put a slightly different complexion on certain aspects of the case.

But NOT the fact that the child was using a specially chartered school bus to get to/from school.

Are you being deliberately dense Mumof56?

Are you being deliberately dense Mumof56?

Or possibly just a bit knackered from looking after 56 weans?

**

Strangely, the estate I lived on at the time, had a lot of sahm's with cars, and yet they still put 5 year olds on the bus!! Why?? It always baffled me. So much could go wrong.

4 year old children all over the world ride buses to school with no problems. We must get out of this driving children to school habit in the UK. Our cities are choked with air pollution.

@CantSleepClownsWillEatMe

No, why do you think I am?

Are you?

Yes I think it was harsh to sack him.

Yes I think it was harsh to sack him.

I imagine the company feared losing the contract with the school (and others).

A 4 year old baby got the bus on his own.

On what planet is a 4yo a fucking ‘baby’.

This place gets more ridiculous by the day.