Vent Yesterday my kid's bus had a blowout.

[agave]

Front tire completely shredded, no one was hurt. Some parents got phone calls and picked up their kids. Only clue I had as to why the bus was running late was a twitter post. The bus driver that brought them home told me what happened.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[jjordan]

I'm glad no one was hurt!

Are you upset that you weren't notified by the school?

 

[agave]

I'm glad no one was hurt!

Are you upset that you weren't notified by the school?

Annoyed, twitter seems to be their preferred form of communication for a lot of things, it's actually the only reason I have an account. I'm also wondering who's responsible for maintenance on the busses.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[CTPDMom]

That would frustrate me!

A bus from my son's school (though not ds's bus) had a mechanical problem once it arrived at the school for pickup last week. As soon as the principal was aware he put out an 'all call' with a recording about the delay to wait for a replacement for bus x and anyone with kids on bus x should expect them to be delayed. 'All calls' come via phone and text and email (or whatever combination of those that you sign up for) and I thought it was great to get speedy info.

 

[joolsplus3]

Glad everyone was ok! Twitter is better than nothing, our school is information-impaired and we never know anything

And...I'm imagining a comical cartoon bus in a diaper with a blowout (eeeew, sorry, can't help it!)

 

[thekatie]

I'd be annoyed too. In fact, never being informed about bus mishaps (and having to wait an hour extra because of the mishaps for J1 to get home) is a large part of why I drive him again.

Glad no one was hurt though!

 

[LISmama810]

And...I'm imagining a comical cartoon bus in a diaper with a blowout (eeeew, sorry, can't help it!)

LOL, I did that, too.

I'd be infuriated if I had to get info like that via Twitter. Our schools use a Honeywell notification system. We had a lockdown a couple weeks ago, and we got notified of that for both our kids' schools. We also got notification that one of their buses wouldn't be running due to that. It's nice because it's set up to text, email, and call DH and me, so there's really no way we wouldn't get notified somehow.

 

[agave]

I wish they'd send texts that would be perfect. They have an autodialer they don't like to use. I don't have push notifications on twitter because I don't care when the middle school volley ball games are or chess club meetings. They really need to separate the important stuff from the normal activities.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[agave]

It just occurred to me that maybe the school didn't call any parents, the kids probably called or texted themselves. It's a K-12 bus.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[NVMBR02]

It just occurred to me that maybe the school didn't call any parents, the kids probably called or texted themselves. It's a K-12 bus.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

That could be.

Lack of communication is a irritation I frequently have with my kids' schools. We had an incident with a bus that broke down last year and the kids got home over 30 mins. late. We only found out what happened when a parent called the school (K-5 bus). Sometimes the school goes overboard with multiple calls/texts/emails for the same event and other times we get nothing.

I'm glad all the kids are safe though!

 

[jacqui276]

The lack of communication with buses drives me crazy too. Last year DD's bus broke down so a couple other buses picked the kids up and brought them to their stop but they were about an hour late because they had to do their run first. DD thankfully had a phone so texted me to let me know and I was able to tell the other parents at the bus stop since they were all concerned (it was one of he first few days of school as well). There was no notification of any sort from the school or bus company. I was going to hold off getting DD a phone but decided to once she started riding the bus for situations like this and I'm happy I did. The school bus company needs to come up with a way to communicate with parents though.

 

[agave]

I was going to hold off getting DD a phone but decided to once she started riding the bus for situations like this and I'm happy I did.

How old is she? My kids already have tracphones without service they use for alarm clocks, MP3 player, and Skype phone for grandparents. They are only 5 and 7 I'm not sure I could trust them not to loose phones.

 

[jacqui276]

How old is she? My kids already have tracphones without service they use for alarm clocks, MP3 player, and Skype phone for grandparents. They are only 5 and 7 I'm not sure I could trust them not to loose phones.

She is 11, was 9, almost 10, when she got it. I don't think I would have been comfortable with her having a phone to carry with her by 5. Even though I would have liked her to reach me if needed, I think trusting a 5 or even 7 year old with something that expensive is tough. Thankfully she didn't have to start riding the bus until middle school. DS will likely be 4.5 when he starts riding the bus and it scares me.

 

[agave]

I can see my 7 yr old being able to handle not loosing a phone in 1-2 years. Maybe we can keep a flip phone with no fun factor and a very minimal pay as you go plan in a backpack next year.

 

[Brigala]

Huh. My kids' bus company never ever told me anything except ONE time when the bus driver missed the kids' stop entirely (their first day at the new school so they didn't knew where their stop was yet and I didn't know what time to expect them) and they were sent home from the bus depot on a short bus. I am pretty sure that's the only phone call I ever got from them.

Oh wait, I just remembered I think they called once like 10 years later when my son left his iPad on the bus.

They had mishaps, blown tires, mechanical failures, new-driver errors, etc. over the years. If the bus was late enough that I started to worry, I called the bus depot. They'd look up the kids' bus number, check the GPS, and if that didn't get them an answer for me they'd contact the driver and call me back.

I got really ticked off once when the driver refused to let a 1st grade day care kid off the bus because, he said, I wasn't at the stop. (A) I was not required to be at the stop because they only require that for kindergarten kids and (B) I was walking my cranky baby up and down the driveway and was only maybe 20 feet away when the bus rolled by without stopping. If he had stopped and looked he would have seen me. It took me almost an hour to get the kid back and I had to send someone to the school to retrieve her. And even THEN they didn't. All me; I called them and spent an hour back and forth trying to figure out whether the child had even gotten on the bus, and if so, where was she now. I was terrified.

The funny thing is that until now, even with all
The annoyances I have had over 12 years with that bus company, it has never occurred to me that I should have expected calls or notifications from them. I'm not sure whether I'm clueless or everyone else is spoiled. LOL. I'm thinking since I'm the odd one out I'm clueless.

 

[jjordan]

Huh. My kids' bus company never ever told me anything except ONE time when the bus driver missed the kids' stop entirely (their first day at the new school so they didn't knew where their stop was yet and I didn't know what time to expect them) and they were sent home from the bus depot on a short bus. I am pretty sure that's the only phone call I ever got from them.

Oh wait, I just remembered I think they called once like 10 years later when my son left his iPad on the bus.

They had mishaps, blown tires, mechanical failures, new-driver errors, etc. over the years. If the bus was late enough that I started to worry, I called the bus depot. They'd look up the kids' bus number, check the GPS, and if that didn't get them an answer for me they'd contact the driver and call me back.

I got really ticked off once when the driver refused to let a 1st grade day care kid off the bus because, he said, I wasn't at the stop. (A) I was not required to be at the stop because they only require that for kindergarten kids and (B) I was walking my cranky baby up and down the driveway and was only maybe 20 feet away when the bus rolled by without stopping. If he had stopped and looked he would have seen me. It took me almost an hour to get the kid back and I had to send someone to the school to retrieve her. And even THEN they didn't. All me; I called them and spent an hour back and forth trying to figure out whether the child had even gotten on the bus, and if so, where was she now. I was terrified.

The funny thing is that until now, even with all
The annoyances I have had over 12 years with that bus company, it has never occurred to me that I should have expected calls or notifications from them. I'm not sure whether I'm clueless or everyone else is spoiled. LOL. I'm thinking since I'm the odd one out I'm clueless.

No, I'm in the same boat where I wouldn't expect notification if the bus had a tire blowout or something else that delayed drop off. Our school doesn't have a system set up to automatically notify parents about bus problems, so it would involve someone making up to 30 phone calls, when their time could be better spent getting the situation taken care of.

 

[agave]

When I was in 7th grade my bus was very delayed when a fuel truck exploded at a gas station and the driver didn't know the area well enough to get around it. My parents figured out why the bus was late from watching the news. Cell phones probably increased our need for instant updates.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk