My 5 year old gets a school bus. It's a private company with a driver and bus assistant. DC started getting the bus at the start of the year. Its so convenient and generally we have had nothing to say about it but good things.
Two weeks ago on the first day back, I went to collect DS from the bus. When they pulled up, the usual children got off and as I waited for my child, the doors closed and the bus drove off. I had to run after the bus shouting at them to stop. The stopped at the bottom of the street and let my child off. No big deal -not great but these things happen. I laughed it off and that was that.
Yesterday, my daughter was upset not long after we got home. She said that in the morning, when they had all got to school, everyone got off the bus except her. She couldn't unbuckle her seatbelt and the bus started to move off, so she shouted 'no, no, no!' so the bus driver would hear her. Luckily he did. Going by what my child said, the bus had started pulling off but hadn't got very far. He unbuckled her seatbelt and helped her off the bus.
When she told me I was a bit annoyed for her but glad she had got off the bus ok. The more and more I thought about it, the more upset I felt. I woke up several times last night thinking about her shouting 'no, no, no!' and how she must have felt.
I spoke to the assistant this morning as I wanted to hear her side of story. My DC tends to be pretty good at remembering things accurately but at the end of the day, she is 5 so it's important to get all the facts. The assistant didn't deny it. In fact, her response was 'yeah but the bus hadn't got very far...I'll keep her beside me today'.
Something about it didn't sit right with me. I told one of the other mums and I ended up getting a bit upset. The other mum reminded me that situations like these can end up tragically and it dawned on me that while my child was OK in the end, who knows what else might have happened, and this doesn't take away from how scared she was.
I then told DC's teacher who took it very seriously and passed it on. I wasn't emotional, just wrote the facts as I had them and explained my concerns. The bus company has been informed and said it won't happen again. I didn't want to make a big deal about it but my instincts are saying that I need to protect my child (and other kids too). However my instinct when it comes to my kids can't always be trusted, as I can be a bit on the over protective side.
I'm picking my child up from the bus soon and I'm dreading seeing the assistant who most likely has been reprimanded for something she didn't seem to think was a big deal. I'm not sure how to handle it. Human error happens, everyone has made mistakes or overlooked things so I don't want heads to roll. I just feel sorry for my little girl and so many different scenarios have gone through my mind.
Yanbu: the bus assistant should have done a head count and final sweep of the bus and not to do so was dangerous. You were right to escalate it.
Yabu: everyone makes mistakes and it was just one of those things, DC was fine and you should have left it at that.