AIBU - is it a safeguarding issue?

[Uglyducklingswan]

WIBU to raise a safeguarding concern with my 12 year olds school? Or am I over reacting and all is fine and these things happen.

Today my kid’s school bus driver re-read a text message I sent him 2 weeks ago (which he has already read and responded to two weeks ago) saying I would collect DC on Friday.
As a result he believed my DC didn’t need the bus and as he was 5 mins late coming out, the bus driver therefore drove off and left my kid at school.

Thankfully DC rang me (in a panic, poor thing), I rang the bus driver and he hadn’t gone far so was able to go back to get DC.

So no harm done except 5 mins of panic for me and DC. I’m also fully aware that DC has a role to play here and we’ve already had words about his responsibility to be on time and the impact that had on the situation and all the other kids who were made late by his lateness. But I also don’t blame him entirely - He’d just had PE and had to get changed, (school rule).

the thing that really annoyed me was when he dropped him off he didn’t apologise, he tried to say it was my fault, said that I definitely sent a message saying I was picking up and so DC wasn’t on the bus. At that point I hadn’t clocked that the message he was talking about was 16 days old and relating to a different date. I just assumed he must have me mixed up with someone else as I haven’t texted him this week at all.

how would you react?

YABU to complain - no harm done, mistakes happen.

YANBU - this could have been a serious safeguarding issue (the reason we have a school bus is the school is in the middle of nowhere with zero public transport.)

A twelve year old being late for his bus and thus being “stranded” at school, with a phone, is not a safeguarding issue. He’s not unsafe, ultimately it’s just extremely inconvenient for you if you have to get him home some other way (which is exactly what was expected when I was at school and which was why I never ever missed the bus, my Mum wouldn’t have been pleased to have to drive and get me). If he was at a school using public transport and missed the bus what do you think would have happened?!

Like a pp, I’m amazed the bus driver was operating a phone while working and I’m at least a bit surprised you’re regularly texting a school bus driver at all. I don’t think it’s really “his mistake” in that by secondary school, unless it’s a special school, I’d expect buses to leave on time with whoever is there, I wouldn’t expect a register!

Your child should know to go back into school so no it isn’t a serious safeguarding problem. It’s just annoying that he made a mistake and blamed you.

I guess the issue is your child was late so the driver left on time and in his head he remembered the old message. The solution is for your child to be on time and then the driver would not even be in such a position.

This. Was he 'stranded' had every single other person left the school?
Given he had means of contact and spoke to you, was he stranded?

I think safeguarding is wider than just neglect and abuse, it covers general welfare and preventing harm. So a child being left would be a safeguarding issue for a school. I would think.

Always date. I learnt that the hard way.

I sent a friend a text "Can you pick ds up from school tomorrow?"
She replied "yes".
Neither of us realised that I had sent it before midnight, and she replied after midnight.
So next day I got back just after school pick up, and she rang to ask something. I answered her and said I was just coming to pick ds up now. I put the phone down to find the school phoning me as ds had been found wandering round outside school by a parent and assumed I'd forgotten him. I put the phone down from that to immediately get a phone call from my friend saying "oh help... I thought you meant tomorrow...."
Ds was most put out when I picked him up as he was having a lovely time at the afterschool club he didn't normally go to. School was put out that I had apparently forgotten him. And me and my friend had a good chuckle and realised next time we needed to be more careful.

Not a safeguarding issue.

It was just a misunderstanding, no harm done and your daughter is 12 not 2 and I take it no severe special needs etc

I'm surprised you even have the drivers number. If we missed the bus, it was our responsibility to get ourselves home. Bus drivers wouldn't check if we were there.

The definition is “ the process of protecting children from abuse and neglect, preventing impairment of their health or development and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully”.

So no, I don’t think a 12 year old missing a bus one day falls under safeguarding. And they weren’t “left” anywhere either, they were at school, with access to a phone and goodness knows how many teachers still around.

Ah I read that as including safe care, ie not leaving them on their own if a school bus was meant to collect them. Depends a bit on the age though, which I hadn’t absorbed from the OP, even though it’s in the first sentence!

It was a mistake and you should let it go. Your son was at school and had his phone. He wasn't in any danger. Hopefully he will be on time for the bus in future and the situation won't arise again.

Your son is 12, he was left at school where teachers would still have been around and children too seeing as he was only 5 mins late.

He has a phone and was able to ring you to let you know the bus had gone without him, given the fact he rang you he is clearly sensible enough not to go wondering off. He was hardly stranded. The bus driver also turned around and went back to pick him up. There is no issue, he’s 12 years old.

Most schools have someone supervising kids getting on buses, so they would take charge of a child turning up just after their bus has gone. Even if they don't, it's very unlikely that there wouldn't be a member of staff on site for at least 20 minutes after the end of school, who would also be able to deal with a child whose parent hasn't turned up to collect. Just check what the procedure is for a child who has not been collected (by bus OR car).

(I know one school with a lot of buses where somebody in each block checked for stragglers before the buses were allowed to leave. )

This is a strangely high level of babysitting for a 12 year old that I never even knew existed.
For my dds secondary school, if they miss the bus, they have to find some other way of getting home/school. Bus driver wouldn't be aware, he certainly wouldn't turn back, and it's highly unusual to have their number.
They've probably missed a bus about a dozen times between them since they were 11 and have used the following methods instead to get home - walked using phones to find a bus stop and got a public bus/phoned me/once I didn't pick up and the public bus had stopped and they called a cab (one we've used before - one man band, we know him).
Absolutely nothing to get fussed about, and actually good skills to learn. With phones these days, there's never a reason to panic. Just phone me and wait how ever long it takes if it comes to that.

I've literally never seen that @lanthanum .
This is a secondary school.

So were the ones I worked in. Admittedly the main reason for "bus duty" is to supervise behaviour whilst waiting for the buses to arrive.

99% of the time a kid misses a school bus, they can make the call and sort themselves out without any help. But if their phone is flat, or they can't get hold of a parent, then there should be someone either on "bus duty" or inside the school who they can go to for help, particularly if the school is in the middle of nowhere.