Hi all-
Well, I'm pretty drained right now. I have a HUGE vent coming...
Matthew was lost coming home on the bus!! The bus driver never dropped him off this afternoon!
He was supposedly on the wrong bus coming home
I am at the bus stop as usual at 3:15pm waiting for my kids to come home. The bus came and Chrissy was coming off the bus. The bus driver noticed Matthew wasn't in the aisle. So the bus driver is calling out Matthew's name, "Matthew, Matthew". No answer. Now I was starting to get worried here, as this never happened before to us. Matthew is always ready to get off the bus. So the bus driver put the bus in park and got out of her seat to check where Matthew is at. She looked and said "Oh, he isn't on the bus". She was very calm about it. I said, "Um, what do you mean he isn't on the bus?!" Bus driver told me that a student told her that Matthew's class got out a minute or two late. That Matthew decided to stay at school to stack up the chairs. I was like"WHAT??" I didn't believe he would be staying at school to stack chairs. Bus driver then tells me, "Oh maybe he stayed for an afterschool club?" I said,"NO, there are no afterschool clubs starting now and I would tell you that morning if he was staying afterschool that afternoon, if he plans on not boarding the bus". Bus driver then says," Ok, I'll radio the bus company". She was extremely calm about losing my son
So she radioed the bus company. Chrissy and I were standing there about 10 min. while she is radioing the bus company. Everytime I tried to ask a question to the bus driver, she kept giving me her index finger, to say,"Shush, I'm listening to the bus CB radio". I told the bus driver that she should call the school. She told me the school is supposed to call her, not HER call the school
After a few minutes of waiting and not getting anywhere, waving her finger at me, I said,"You know, I'll just go home and call the school and hopefully THEY will find him!!" She said. "ok". And that was that with her. I was pretty livid by this time! Anyways, when Chrissy and I got home, I called the school
and our regular school secretary that knows me pretty well answered the phone. Secretary said that she just got off the phone with the bus company and they found Matthew! He boarded another bus by accident. What I found out was that Matthew's classroom teacher dismissed the class a couple of minutes late and somehow his bus left the school already and Matthew couldn't remember his bus route # , so he supposedly thought he was on the right bus. When Matthew found out eventually he boarded the wrong bus, he said he was scared
Anyways, the other bus he was on dropped him off back at school and the secretary told me that I would need to pick him up at school. So I picked him up. He was very happy to see me! He's OK
Oh, I forgot to mention, that when I asked the bus driver earlier why she didn't check to see that ALL her kids boarded the bus, she told me that isn't her job to see that all her kids board the bus
I do notice this bus driver is very anal about certain things. She keeps telling me since day 1 of school that this and that is not her job
Well I did call the bus company after we all got home, and I reported the bus driver to the bus company. I was pretty livid! Bus company said the supervisor is going to talk to the driver. I'm guessing nothing is going to happen, as of disciplinary measures to the driver. I explained to the bus company that Matthew is autistic and extra measures were supposed to be in place, even tho he and Chrissy ride a regular school bus.
I'm not sure if the bus company didn't do their job in letting their driver know about Matthew, b/c there are a couple of other special -ed kids that ride on our bus. Or if the bus driver just doesn't pay attention
I'm surprised the other bus took Matthew on his/her bus
All the kids are REQUIRED to have a bus pass on them. As I can tell, the bus drivers are SUPPOSED to check the bus passes. DUH
, that's what the bus passes are for, for the bus drivers to CHECK that all their children are on the right bus
I just HATE this bus company! They have screwed up many other times, too!
Other things in the past yrs I had to deal with with this bus company
UGGH!
Well, Matthew is home safe and that's what counts
I hope this teaches a lesson to the bus company that school bus drivers MUST check everyone's bus passes
I sure have a finger to wave, Lady!
Oh, after this whole bus ordeal was somewhat over, I found out that Chrissy took home another girl's papers home by accident
DH came home from work a little early today, so I sent DH back to school to drop off the other girl's papers in the classroom and pick up Chrissy's papers. I was just at the school and I didn't want to have to go back again
I was still upset by the bus ordeal.
You would have thought it was Friday the 13th, and not Friday the 31st!
Thanks in advance to listening to my vent
I could use a vacation right about now!
Penny! 
(don't forget PICTURES....lotsa PICTURES!!!) 
(not funny, but it was after it was "plugged" after your son's story).
