Parents forced recess at a FWISD board meeting, insisting they be heard about school bus stop errors.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Parents in Fort Worth whose children ride the school bus are looking for assurances that their kids get dropped off at the right stop.
One parent said they were shunned at a school board meeting, and now the district is doing something.
In a recent video recorded aboard a bus during an incorrect drop-off, you can hear children crying and screaming.
“This is not there stop, These kids don’t belong here,” can be heard in the recording.
When Fort Worth mother Isabel Arreola got interrupted playing video of her daughter and other children getting dropped off at the wrong school bus stop, the Fort Worth ISD board meeting erupted with outcries from other concerned parents like Gloria Williams.
Several parents starting yelling for the school board sound technician to turn the microphone back on for Arreola. Williams is one of the mothers in the audience who became upset that no one took their concerns under immediate attention.
“I was upset that nobody took responsibility when we started reaching out to people? They just kept calling it an incident,” said Williams.
Williams and her husband had already brought their concerns to the school district in writing after sending an email.
A school bus driver dropped their two daughters on Lowden Street in Fort Worth, which is several blocks away. The assigned school bus stop for their children is one block away.
But on a Friday in September, the driver insisted they exit the school bus according to the parents not only blocks away from home but across Hemphill Street in a completely different neighborhood.
Williams said, “They were telling them that it wasn’t their stop and just hysterical, Just two little girls hysterical.”
After a school board member told the parents they would talk with them later about their concerns, Williams said new superintendent Dr. Angelica Ramsey gave them a personal promise.
“That’s what we were told by her personally,” said Williams, “We had a separate meeting with her in the room and she told us that she would handle it.”
“I am just doing my job,” said Ramsey.
Ramsey just took over as new school superintendent at Fort Worth ISD. She came from a smaller district that has some of the same challenges and characteristics.
Ramsey is described as a hands-on type of leader. Even during her last week in her previous district, she continued doing school site visits to check on teachers, staff and students.
One of her goals is to improve the community relationship between the school board and parents who are actively involved in their children’s education. She is also a strong advocate for the PTA (Parent Teachers Association).
After three wrong drop-offs in September alone, parents wait at school bus stops hoping it doesn’t happen again.
Williams and other concerned parents are still waiting on the district’s plan to make sure students are always dropped off at the right bus stop.
Fort Worth ISD shared its safety plan that includes adding technical enhancements to track buses, giving consistent cross-training to transportation staff and meeting with parents to promptly address their concerns.