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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

No mask so school bus left my DD

492 replies

onanislandfaraway · 14/06/2021 22:34

Both me and my DP was at work today so my 13yo DD has to be home alone for a couple of hours until DP gets home at 6pm. I texted her asking did she get home OK and she told me she'd lost her mask during a sports session at school and that the school bus wouldn't let her on so left her at school.

She didn't want to hassle me or DP at work so rang her nan to pick her up and thank god she was able to and only lives a 15 minute drive away so wasn't waiting around too long. Her school is in the next town over to where we live so way too far for her to walk home. AIBU to think that the school bus is responsible for getting children home and should not have just left her at the school? Shouldn't they have spare masks just incase of instances like this? I will of course be making sure she has plenty of spare masks in her bag, to be honest she did use to carry a few spares but didn't happen to have any today. I am quite angry that they've done this.

OP posts:
altoran · 15/06/2021 15:58

Derbyshire Council have told their school bus drivers not to let children on without a face covering.

rainbowunicorn · 15/06/2021 16:06

@lollipoprainbow

I travelled on a school bus from age 4

Yeah of course you did Hmmwhen was this the 40's?? Life has moved on since then society isn't as nice as it once was or hadn't you noticed ??

Don't know why you are so disbelieving. Where I am plenty of kids take the school bus to Primary school. It is the parents responsibility to get them to the nearest pick up point and then they travel by bus to the school.
Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 15/06/2021 16:20

Why are people so mean on Mumsnet? It is not acceptable for the driver to leave a kid at school or to enforce a rule for a kid who has 0% risk following LFT testing. The world is mean and mad if any mother on here thinks that is okay.

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 15/06/2021 16:22

@OrangeRug

Absolutely fucking disgusting. I can't believe the way children have been treated this past year.
Agree!
Workingfromhomeishell · 15/06/2021 16:22

This is ridiculous! Your poor daughter. The world has actually lost the plot entirely if anyone for even a second thinks that the balance of risk is in favour of leaving a 13year old girl stranded and alone miles from home. I'm embarrassed to be British.

Workingfromhomeishell · 15/06/2021 16:27

Sorry 2nd post but I'm actually fuming. I'd be making an enormous complaint. Local papers etc

This is so so dangerous and blinkered.

I'm absolutely fed up of everyone using covid as an excuse to abandon common sense and decency.

Particularly where children and young women are concerned.

Sarah Everard anyone?

There were so many other options the driver could have taken before abandoning her alone miles from home.

It's disgraceful. I cannot believe anyone would defend the driver . Turn your brains on.

Sockwomble · 15/06/2021 16:33

"There were so many other options the driver could have taken before abandoning her alone miles from home."

She was at school. I'm embarrassed for you by the level of your exaggerating.

Workingfromhomeishell · 15/06/2021 16:42

School was over. Did the driver inform the school and ensure she was taken safely in/ a teacher alerted? Are you then expecting a teacher to wait with her (still maskless) while parents travel in from two towns over? When the parents may not have been contactable if working? Let her cover her face with a jumper, sit more than 2m away from everyone and get her safely home. The kids are all mixing without masks at lunch etc anyway let's be realistic. Everyone is so covid and mask crazy and they seem to have lost all logic - that's what's embarrassing

AnneElliott · 15/06/2021 16:42

I think some of the responses here have been harsh. Bus drivers do have a duty of care and why didn't he just tell her to pull her jumper up over her nose and mouth? I've seen lots of adults do that on normal buses.

Rillington · 15/06/2021 16:45

@Workingfromhomeishell Sarah Everard went missing at night. This 13 year old was at her school with many staff around. Totally not the same.

NCwhatsmynameagain · 15/06/2021 16:49

Absolutely not ok OP. When will we prioritise the safety of women and girls above other less important rules.

Boomisshiss · 15/06/2021 16:52

Face covering on buses isn’t a rule it’s the law

SassyGirl79 · 15/06/2021 16:54

She’s 13 for god sake it’s easily done the bus driver should of waited for her to grab one from the office, thankfully it’s light outside after school and she used her common sense, even if it’s not the drivers fault she/he shouldn’t of done that, let the school know as a child could end up stranded in the near future and they may put something in place.

Boomisshiss · 15/06/2021 16:55

@Workingfromhomeishell

School was over. Did the driver inform the school and ensure she was taken safely in/ a teacher alerted? Are you then expecting a teacher to wait with her (still maskless) while parents travel in from two towns over? When the parents may not have been contactable if working? Let her cover her face with a jumper, sit more than 2m away from everyone and get her safely home. The kids are all mixing without masks at lunch etc anyway let's be realistic. Everyone is so covid and mask crazy and they seem to have lost all logic - that's what's embarrassing
Let her sit 2 m away from everyone on a school bus. How much space do you actually think is on a bus full of children ?Now that’s embarrassing.
BarbarianMum · 15/06/2021 16:56

@Workingfromhomeishell the school and staff dont magically cease to exist the moment the bell rings.

The infantilisation of the OPs (perfectly capable) daughter is worrying.

SassyGirl79 · 15/06/2021 16:58

@Workingfromhomeishell

Sorry 2nd post but I'm actually fuming. I'd be making an enormous complaint. Local papers etc

This is so so dangerous and blinkered.

I'm absolutely fed up of everyone using covid as an excuse to abandon common sense and decency.

Particularly where children and young women are concerned.

Sarah Everard anyone?

There were so many other options the driver could have taken before abandoning her alone miles from home.

It's disgraceful. I cannot believe anyone would defend the driver . Turn your brains on.

Well said...
HarrietPierce · 15/06/2021 17:00

Which many adults on a thread yesterday said they are DONE with.

imforourfreedomback · 15/06/2021 17:00

@Geamhradh

Lesson learned. She'll make sure she has a spare from now on. Not the bus driver's fault. Or the school's. Yours, and your daughter's.
Oh wow. Some evil people out there. Do you have children? Don't think so
HarrietPierce · 15/06/2021 17:00

The masks I mean.

LynetteScavo · 15/06/2021 17:05

DD would have told the member of staff overseeing pupils getting on the busses, they would have given her a disposable mask and charged you for it.

HarrietPierce · 15/06/2021 17:09

"DD would have told the member of staff overseeing pupils getting on the busses, they would have given her a disposable mask and charged you for it."

Far too sensible an idea for some posters.

Frownette · 15/06/2021 17:10

Frankly, if it is a school bus they do have a responsibility to get the schoolchildren home.

But as they didn't make sure dd always has a pack in her bag.

Lifeislikea · 15/06/2021 17:20

The infantilisation of the OPs (perfectly capable) daughter is worrying

Agree.

I thought Workingfromhomeishell's posts were a windup, to be honest.

Even if the driver was being a jobsworth - and I don't know if he was or not, but passengers without masks are allowed on other busses without challenge - she was at the school, for heaven's sake.

epcot15 · 15/06/2021 17:26

@onanislandfaraway

0None0 she's not wrapped in cotton wool, I'm just worried that this is their protocol, more for other more vulnerable children as this muc=st be fairly common. "Too far to walk" was just easier than saying, "she has to walk from one town through a very secluded road with nothing but forest for 3 miles or more" into a village with narrow lanes then about another mile and a half through the streets".

The "outrage" isn't anything about walking 5 miles.

Don't listen to people like no one, I think they're just bored and like to shit stir, they're probably the sort of people that would see a 5yr old walk 10 miles each way to school in a blizzard. Some people on Mumsnet are on another fucking planet sometimes! The bus driver had a duty of care to get your daughter home and should not have left her, same could be said with kids that forget their dinner money school doesn't make them starve!
MaryBoBary · 15/06/2021 17:31

So she was left on school grounds, didn't need a teachers assistance as she had her own phone and she got home safely. I don't think anyone is to blame here except your daughter who should have had a mask. She was in a safe place so bus driver did nothing wrong.

Maybe she will remember this and remember a mask as well.