Parent exposes alarming seating conditions on Arkansas school bus
by Ashley Luningham
PULASKI COUNTY, Ark. (KATV) — A parent of a student in the Pulaski County Special School District is speaking out after receiving an alarming photo of students sitting on the floor of a school bus.
You can clearly see everybody sitting on the floor,” said Chris Runshe. “If they are in a wreck, those kids are just going to go flying. Kids are going to hit other kids and just be a disaster. This is not something you want to see as a parent.”
Runshe says on top of that, when going to get his child, the bus stop sign was not out when students were getting off so he reached out to the district.
“I have gotten a few phone calls from people in the school district saying, ‘we were not aware of this,’ or, ‘this will not happen again’ but how did we even get in the place in the first place with letting students pile on the bus and sit on the floor,” questioned Runshe.
Charles Anderson, transportation supervisor with PCSSD, said they have taken steps to handle the issue.
Right now it is a personnel issue,” he said. “We want to say there is no overcrowding on the bus. A student is never supposed to sit on the floor of the bus. School-aged students, elementary, no student is supposed to sit on the floor at any time.”
Anderson said bus drivers are required by the district to go through monthly training and the district has always made safety a top priority.
“When transporting students, we are transporting live bodies,” he said. “The district never has waived from that. I have been here for 22 years in transportation and we have never waivered from that. It has always been the number one standard here.”
As a reminder, Anderson said for drivers heading to work, when students get off of the bus and the stop sign is out and flashing, drivers should never pass the bus to ensure the safety of students getting off.
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