Bus dropping kids off in snow, help?

[RandomNPC]

So I've got an interesting situation, it's a bit of a rant, but I want to describe it right.

We live in a trailer park with one exit, it's not trailers on a city block, it's an entirely contained, one road out trailer park. The bus comes to drop my six year old off from kindergarten, and as the park is private property the driver is only allowed to drive in to the front area, it's a stupid rule, but it's the park owners decision. The driver passes the bus shelter, and the first road off the main one. The park office happens to be on this first road branching off, it's the first trailer, marked with a big "OFFICE" sign and everything.

The law says the bus can not back up after kids get off the bus, so the driver backs the bus down this side street, until the door is lined up fairly well (most days) with the office driveway. The parents all gather here in the driveway, as it's the nearest non-muddy area to stand, and the driver having finished her turn around, shifts the bus back into drive. She then makes a right turn, back the way she came in, as if leaving the park. She drives to the end of the "lot," or yard, of the office, and drops the kids there, where the snow plows that clear our streets like to leave piles of snow taller than my kid.

I've been informed by parents that she will drop them there when the snow piles up, my kid will be hidden entirely behind the snow when he gets off the bus. My talking to her about safety, and why I feel he shouldn't need a flame thrower to get off the bus, revealed only that she fears her boss enough to keep doing exactly what he says with no change. My e-mail conversation resulted in two e-mails from him saying "It's the law, laws do not change." followed by him ignoring me after I asked where I could reference said law. E-mail with his boss got me a "We're looking into it." followed by almost two weeks of nothing.

tl;dr

Bus driver dropping a dozen or so kids in piles of snow, fears her boss to much to do anything. Boss is lazy, his boss is apparently taking his side. The only law in effect here is she can't drop the kids and then back up, but if she backs up first she lines up fine with a clean driveway she refuses to use.

Any ideas? Next week we're going to video tape it. If they don't fix it after seeing that, barring any other ideas I'll you-tube it and hope it goes viral in a bad way for the school. There's about five or six other parents on my side on this one. Help?

[LaZodiac]

Best idea I can think of is making sure that area isn't clogged with snow. You could probably organize a group of people to shovel it daily.

Alternatively, block it off so heavily that the only way to drop them off is by going somewhere else. It's a small community from what I can tell, pretty sure you can initative some kind of "you saw nothing" policy.

[thubby]

it's just snow, right? move it.
p.i.t.a. that it is, it should work.

[Grinner]

Are you joking? Your kid probably loves it. I should have been so lucky to get a snow drift when I attended school.

But more on topic, shoveling the area out is probably your best option.

[Gnoman]

Had a similar problem beck when I entered middle school. Lived on a major road (light traffic, but 55 mph speed limit that was often ignored) that not only had no sidewalks but had ditches on either side. The school wnated everyone on the road to walk to a central stop (generally between 1/2 to 1 1/2 miles depending on person) rather than making per house stops, and responded to complaints with "he's a big boy now, so stop whining." Eventually our only recourse was to speak with an attorney.

[Lycan 01]

Might wanna be careful. I'm not sure what the legality of recording video of a school bus is, as there are some rules and laws regarding recording students in some places. I mean, I'm not saying your idea is bad. You just don't want it to come back and bite you in the butt. :smalleek:

[dehro]

use a shovel

[Eldan]

Are you joking? Your kid probably loves it. I should have been so lucky to get a snow drift when I attended school.

But more on topic, shoveling the area out is probably your best option.

Probably not joking, but I agree on "not really seeing the problem". I was quite used to walking to school in knee- or even hip-high snow for at least one month per year. And I loved climbing over snow walls during ten o'clock breaks.

[SweetLikeLemons]

I see where the concern could come from. These aren't just snowdrifts that you can walk through or shovel easily. Anyone who has had to shovel a plow pile from the end of a driveway knows that they behave more like a pile of concrete than a heap of fluffy flakes. Yes, I am sure most children would be excited by the chance to play on one, but they are sometimes slippery and unstable, and children having to climb them mere feet from a large running vehicle is not an unreasonable thing for a parent to worry about. Also, if they are higher than the kids' heads, I would worry about them cutting off the driver's line of sight to the kids, which is dangerous, too.

Have you talked to anyone at your child's school or school district? If they contract with the bus company, instead of running their own buses, their concerns might carry a bit more weight with the company than those of a small group of parents.

If there is no way to change where the kids are dropped off, could you ask the people who plow to leave the piles somewhere else?

[dehro]

There's about five or six other parents on my side on this one. Help?


I see where the concern could come from. These aren't just snowdrifts that you can walk through or shovel easily.



apparently there are 5-6 parents sitting around with nothing better to do than to write complaints. hand a shovel to each of them and the snowpile suddenly becomes a whole lot more manageable.

[thubby]

apparently there are 5-6 parents sitting around with nothing better to do than to write complaints. hand a shovel to each of them and the snowpile suddenly becomes a whole lot more manageable.

and maybe a pickaxe...

you act like advocating for safety and convenience are trivial things. especially when the only thing making this an issue is bureaucracy.

[dehro]

and maybe a pickaxe...

you act like advocating for safety and convenience are trivial things. especially when the only thing making this an issue is bureaucracy.

I believe in safety.
I also believe that when a simple solution presents itself that allows one to cut through red tape and teach a lazy bureaucrat a lesson, it should be taken.
we're talking a few square feet of area here...not half the trailer-park. all you need to do is shovel some of the snow out of the way..if possible without retaliation, on the boss's driveway, to teach him a lesson. (I'd give it the shape of african phallic totems, but since there are kids involved, better not)
Once you've done that (and it can't take 5-6 people more than a couple hours), all you need to do is take turns to keep it clean should it keep snowing..a whole lot easier than doing it the first time around.
petitioning the school, the busdriver, the owner of the trailer park and who knows who else may result in having to wait days/weeks before someone actually does something...not to mention the general bad feelings that would ensue. my way you solve the problem straight away..instead of waiting for the accident to happen and saying "told ya" afterwards

[Jarawara]

Once you've done that (and it can't take 5-6 people more than a couple hours)...

Not to rain on your parade, but if it's already rained, the snow/rain/ice mixture might have frozen back up into a nearly unbreakable block. I watched a man in full-sized front loader machine spend 5-6 hours moving the snow from where the snow-plow had left it. I tried to break up the snow myself but couldn't even chip through the surface. He had trouble breaking it up even on his front-loader.

Having the bus unload elsewhere might be the only reasonable option.


And, just so we know what's really at stake here: Child gets off bus, onto big block of snowdrift. Child can't easily go over snowdrift, so child tries to go around, alongside the bus. Child slips. Snowdrift angles towards the bus, so child slides under the bus.

Bus driver, having completed his sacred duty, drives off. Doesn't even take note of the bump he went over, assuming it was just piled up snow.

*~*

Videotape the event, get an attorney, do whatever it takes to get this practice stopped.

[Helanna]

Once you've done that (and it can't take 5-6 people more than a couple hours), all you need to do is take turns to keep it clean should it keep snowing..a whole lot easier than doing it the first time around.
petitioning the school, the busdriver, the owner of the trailer park and who knows who else may result in having to wait days/weeks before someone actually does something...not to mention the general bad feelings that would ensue. my way you solve the problem straight away..instead of waiting for the accident to happen and saying "told ya" afterwards

So what, 6 people should have to take a few hours out of their day in order to shovel snow instead of the bus just dropping the kids off before driving forward?

And this is snow build-up from a plow, so they can't just keep the area clear. They would likely have to do this every single day. And in the meantime, you have school administrators who are ignoring parental concerns about the safety of their children.

I say go for it and do whatever you need to to get the school to listen.

[THAC0]

Or... and this might be a shock... you could work on both solutions.

I mean, we all know how slowly bureaucratic organizations work. What if someone gets hurt in the meantime? Shovel enough snow WHILE pursuing the school district. Take video of what it looks like now, of what the parents are having to do to ensure a safe drop off for their kids, and then storm the board of ed meeting with snow shovels in hand! :smallcool:

[dehro]

Or... and this might be a shock... you could work on both solutions.

I mean, we all know how slowly bureaucratic organizations work. What if someone gets hurt in the meantime? Shovel enough snow WHILE pursuing the school district. Take video of what it looks like now, of what the parents are having to do to ensure a safe drop off for their kids, and then storm the board of ed meeting with snow shovels in hand! :smallcool:

this.
it's pointless to pursue bureaucrats with doomsday scenarios and then do nothing about it in theintervening time that the bureaucracy spends digesting the issue. should something happen AFTER you've allerted the people in charge and BEFORE they've done something about it..yes..it will be their responsability..but will that make you, or the family of the run over child sleep any better knowing that you could have prevented it through action?

also..has anyone tried to point out the problem to the guy manning the snow plough?

[Obrysii]

Probably not joking, but I agree on "not really seeing the problem". I was quite used to walking to school in knee- or even hip-high snow for at least one month per year. And I loved climbing over snow walls during ten o'clock breaks.

I third.

I don't see the problem here, other than perhaps overzealous parenting.

[RandomNPC]

I honestly don't think half of the responses at this point even read the issue. The driver stops in front of the office driveway, it is cleared multiple times a day if needed, and it's where we gather. The kids are dropped off in a snow plow pile, across the property.

For everyone who mentioned it is a plow pile and not a drift, thank you.

We're not asking the driver to change the route, she already drives past the drop point we want. I made an effort to be home from work early enough to see the highschool bus today, and they got dropped at the driveway. Substitute drivers drop the kids at the driveway. I'd put them there if I could.

Those of you who've been helpful have been, don't think you're not. My wife went over the school boards head today and e-mailed the state transportation department, they've got a branch just for students, we'll see how that pans out.