First Student: Admits Fault: 2 1/2 Months of Bus Issues: Don't Call Mom Back

First Student and Savannah Chatham County School officials admit they dropped the ball when it comes to one mother's issues with her child's late and no-show bus and then nobody calling or emailing her back when she asked for an explanation. Here's what happened:

A mother who has gone to every imaginable length to get answers on her own about her son's late and no-show bus which doesn't have a permanent driver. Mom, Laura Schexnayder, called me because nobody responded to her about the original issues with her 10-year old son, Dylan Thomas', problematic bus route and then an incident that is every parent's worst nightmare, not knowing where your child is because he never arrived home from school. Laura says she was still at work at close to 5 p.m. two weeks ago when Dylan never called her to say he got home. When she called First Student, folks there told Laura that the bus Dylan rides on was back in the bus yard. Panic and fear immediately rushed into Laura's head. A few minutes later, Dylan's dad called Laura, telling her that all of the children who ride on Dylan's bus were still at May Howard Elementary School.

Laura requested an explanation and phone call from First Student officials. Nobody called her. She then left a message for Cedric Burse, the school district's transportation director, Cedric Burse. He never returned her phone call.

Laura called me after she not receiving a single response to an email expressing her concerns. She sent that email to First Student, the district's transportation director, chief operations officer, her school board representative, the school board president and the principal at May Howard Elementary, her son's school.

The email was sent on Friday, November 6th. Here's the email that Laura sent.

Imagine being told that your child's bus was back in the school yard yet your child wasn't home yet. Then imagine First Student double checking that fact only to tell you again that "all children were dropped off and the bus is back in the yard". This is what happened on Monday, November 2, 2009 at approximately 5pm. My child is usually home between 4pm and 4:10pm. Hearing those words sent me into a panic fearing the worst had happened to my son and that he could have been abducted. As I tried to compose myself and find the phone book to look up the number for May Howard School, my co-workers were dialing 911. It took several minutes before I got a phone call from my son's father saying that my son was still at school along with all students who ride Bus #134.

Apparently Bus #134 was seen driving by the school, but never stopped! May Howard had been on the phone trying to secure another bus to come pick up the students to no avail. After I found that my son was safe at school, I called First Student back and spoke with our route supervisor, Melinda Winningham. She had no answers and just kept saying "it's unfortunate". Unfortunate??!! For those few minutes until I knew my son was safe, I was terrified and hysterical with fear. I asked to speak with her supervisor, Tom Williams. He too, gave the standard "I'm sorry" but had no answers and said he would investigate and either him or Melinda would call me back. I asked that he personally call me with details of this breakdown of communications and the details of what transpired with the bus never picking up the students. I still have not heard back from Tom Williams and today is Friday.

On Tuesday morning I called Cedric Burse and left a message on voice mail asking him to call me. I gave a brief synopsis of what had happened on Monday. As of this morning, I still have not heard back from him either.

I cannot tell you exactly how many times we have had problems with Bus #134. On at least 5 occasions since school started this year, I have personally had to take the kids to school because the bus never showed up. My neighbor can attest to this as she piles the remainder in her car that cannot fit into mine. Keep in mind that some of these kids at the bus stop are strangers to us. Since their parents have already left for work, I couldn't in good conscience just leave them standing at a corner. This is dangerous for the children as well as myself for liability reasons. Forget the fact that this made me late for my job and having to answer to my boss. Upon calling First Student on each of these occasions, I have been told by Melinda Winningham that they are working on it and do not have a regular driver at this point. I'm not even going into detail about the dozens of times the bus was at least 25 minutes late in picking the kids up in the morning. At least the bus finally showed on those occasions! There are several more occasions when the bus taking them home didn't show up at May Howard until at least 4:30pm.

I want answers and I want the Board of Education and First Student accountable. This latest incident on Monday was the absolute final straw. You have no idea how it felt not knowing if something had happened to my child and fearing the worst. This is outrageous and the fact that no one will call me back is unacceptable.

The ball is in your court. Is something going to be done about this? Is this constant problem with Bus #134 going to be corrected immediately? Is anyone going to contact me? And finally, do I just need to go to the media in the hopes that publicity will force the Board of Education and First Student to be held accountable?