School bus driver refused to drop my daughter home

[Theherringbones]

My year 9 daughter gets the school bus service home from school everyday. Its a private service for her school only and It’s about a 50 minute journey.

Tonight there is an unusual amount of traffic on the roads. The driver refused to drop my daughter at her (home) stop as it would take him too long to get there. He said he would drop her somewhere 15 minutes away and she would have to have someone pick her up. She was in tears in the phone to me. The usual 50 minute trip took him about 80 minutes.

The bus stop she was dropped at is a clear run to our home as it’s the back roads and there was no traffic on them. I know that it would have taken him an extra 15 minutes to drop her home, but it is his job!

I was stuck in the middle of the traffic in the opposite direction, trying to collect my other child and had to make all sorts of crazy arrangements with friends to get to her. Luckily I made it just in time.

I had words with him and he was completely rude, ignorant, aggressive and arrogant about it. He refused to give me his name and said it would have take him too long to take her home (it would have been an extra time for him) and there wasn’t another option.

How can a private bus service that is the only reason she can attend this school, refuse to drop her home? Am I being unreasonable or should he have dropped her home, no matter what?!

I imagine there’s a real chance a bus driver on a school,bus run can go over hours, as that won’t be the only driving they do in a day. They are possibly doing a morning run and then daytime work on other routes / services, or doing those in the day and then the home time run in the evening. By the end of the day the cumulative effect of delays could easily take someone over 10 hours. But I agree, there ought to be a contingency plan.

This is a Safeguarding issue. It is his job to ensure that she is dropped off at her home. Not some random place. She is 9 years old fgs. How could he leave a 9 year old on her own in the dark. I would deffo speak to the school and raise a complaint. They will know who the driver is

Now OP has clarified this is a "late" bus and not an after school bus, it does sound like the bus driver was out of driving hours for the day. Not sure what else he could have done? He told DD to contact an adult to pick her up and an adult arrived in time, so DD was not left on her own in a strange place.

Yanbu he abandoned a teenage girl and left her stranded. I'd be fuming if I'd paid for a bus or taxi and they did that to me you can't just leave people in the middle of no where. People on this thread sticking up for the driver I wonder how they would feel if a taxi driver left them in the middle of nowhere and didn't take them to their destination that they'd paid for.

It absolutely is not.
A 13 or 14yo dropped off suddenly and unexpectedly a 15 minute drive from home, so perhaps not easily walkable (possibly in bad weather) would be quite stressed and anxious. Crying when she spoke to her mother maybe a combination of stress and relief.

Surely this is a safeguarding issue?
Definitely raise this with the school and coach company. They can’t be dropping children at random points in the journey because of traffic.

I'm sorry but do you know the first thing about autism? As the OPs DD possibly is (she describes it as currently undiagnosed, I assume awaiting assessment)? My DD at 18 would likely cry, it's the complete change of plans, it would mess with her head and send her body into overdrive and her adrenaline would be through the roof, that is likely what caused it.

Unfortunately dealing with ND you don't get to just suck it up when your body goes into meltdown and as sensible as my DD is, and as logical as her mind tries to be, her body doesn't co operate. It's a massive impact on her when anything changes and although she tries to deal with it, something like this changing so suddenly would have a real impact on her.

He didn't leave her in the middle of nowhere - he warned DD that he couldn't take her to her destination, asked her to call someone to pick her up and handed her over to OP. There was no leaving her anywhere.

Edited: initially asked how the driver knew she would be picked up but I am guessing the daughter passed the phone to him

And what if nobody could get her

I would contact the school and have a clear plan in place for future because if her phone wasn't working or you were not available, this very much was a safeguarding issue and you need to know what the rules are going forwards so you can plan accordingly.

Hope you get somewhere with the school. It really does sound like he wanted to get home himself rather than finish the job!

I grew in very similar circumstances and would have reacted in the same way. Honestly even now I'm my 30s if I was abandoned in the middle of nowhere, I'd be quite upset!

You clearly have no knowledge of the bus industry. Buses and drivers will do other routes before, between or after the school trips. So they could easily run out of hours.

In my experience, people who refuse to give their names are usually afraid of losing their jobs or of being demoted or of being suspended or of getting in some sort of trouble.
If he was confident in being right, he would’ve told the OP his name and supplied her with his supervisor’s name, too, I’m sure.
The refusal to give his name is a dead giveaway. He did something wrong, and he knows it.
I’m happy your daughter made it home safe, @Theherringbonesand I hope you follow up on this poor behaviour — otherwise, the driver will think he’s entitled to repeat it.

This is completely irrelevant. She may not have had her phone, it may have been dead and she may not have been able to contact anyone and would have been left on her own because all of the other children who would get off at that stop would naturally go home.

There will be a contract between the school and the bus company that will obligate them to report changes to stops in advance to the school so it can be communicated to the parents for safeguarding reasons. They have a duty of care. What do you think would happen if a child got dropped off randomly and got lost as a result? 15 minutes away isn’t even local to the original stop. Not all children are streetwise and have good coping skills in an unexpected situation. It wasn’t an emergency situation, he chose to change the designated route on a whim and expected to be able to clock off early I would well imagine. He wouldn’t give his name as he didn’t expect to be caught out and doesn’t want to have to reap the repercussions of his actions; not because he thinks someone may put it on Mumsnet thread. 🙄 Besides, if you’re not going to cause safeguarding risks to children then you have nothing to fear by giving your name should you? If you were him of course. Also If he believed he was in the right he would have calmly explained a valid reason for not dropping her at her designated stop instead of giving some vague nonsense excuse about traffic. He didn’t have a good reason and so he got defensive and was rude. Having words doesn’t mean that the OP was rude or aggressive in any manner unlike the bus driver himself.

OP, It shouldn’t be difficult to find out who it was if you give details of the bus route and driver’s description. With their contracts comes safeguarding obligations which he has failed to consider and act upon. The school could rightly withdraw the company’s contract over behaviour like this.

If driver had run out of hours he should have arranged for a relief driver to be sent out.

She is not 9 years old. She is year 9.

People still banging on about hours as if thats a good reason or excuses anything🙄

It doesn't actually even matter how old the child was - 6 or 16 or anywhere in between. It's a SCHOOL bus service. If state school, it will be contracted out and paid for by the LA (and possibly charged to parents). There is no situation where ANY child should ever be dropped off anywhere other than their scheduled stop.

Either one of two entries are at fault here:

• The driver. He fucked up, didn't follow stringent rules or protocols in some way. The coach company are likely to take it very seriously.

• The coach company. The driver was out of allowed hours and the company have no contingency in place. They should be falling over themselves to apologise and change and if they don't then the LA is likely to take the matter very seriously.

I’d be furious about this OP tbh

Not ok for her to be dropped in a random place. Maybe he was dropping her with other kids, but they are not responsible for her. He is.

If he was really out of driving hours (very unlikely for reasons stated, plus as pp says there’s an “emergencies” override clause) then what should have happened is he parks the coach somewhere and waits with her until either a parent or another bus company driver can get there.

Whether she should have cried or not is irrelevant. The point is that an adult driver left a 13 year old girl at the side of the road a 15 minute drive away from where he is paid and - more importantly- entrusted to drop her. Most likely nothing to do with his hours and all to do with him being sick of the traffic and cba to drive an extra 15 min.

Safeguarding pure and simple - contact school by phone in the morning and follow up with an email.

Also, for anyone not aware or who thinks the coach company won't care or whatever...school bus runs are positively fought over by travel companies. They're lucrative, regular and reliable income, being paid for by the LA.

If the driver fucked up, which is by far the most likely situation imo, the company is likely to be furious with him because many LA's would boot them out for such a horrific safeguarding failure.

You’re allowed to drive something like 8 hours a day, he’s a school bus driver not a long distance lorry driver!

This makes perfect sense to me! Thank you

Completely agree.
Such nasty responses from some.
Of course she might be upset and overwhelmed if its dark, she is tired and her mum isn't able to get her, after a long day at school.
They are only back a few weeks and are still tired.
I think this is a huge safeguarding issue and I would be absolutely furious.
The school that you pay is your first pointbof contact and formalise your complaint by email.
I would be very unhappy about this.
Is he properly vetted?
He certainly doesn't sound as if he takes his responsibilities seriously.

To be fair if the school are cutting the drivers hours so fine that a delay or traffic of less than an hour puts them over their limit, they really need to reassess their contracts in my opinion. The route is a long one and can often run over.