School district: Bus incident a ‘mishandled situation’

Teresa Hinds

Thursday, May 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

A school bus driver who denied rides home to a group of Greenspun Junior High School students mishandled the situation and has been counseled on the proper procedure, a school district official said.

Ron Despenza, director of the Clark County School District's transportation department, said the 15 to 20 students who were denied transportation home from school Monday had been riding the bus on a space-available basis and should have been told they had one day to arrange alternate transportation.

Instead, the bus driver told students that were scheduled to be dropped off at Arroyo Grande Boulevard and Highland Glenn in Henderson that they could no longer ride the bus, Despenza said.

"In talking with the driver, as she was saying it the kids began to disembark the bus," Despenza said. "I take it the driver was not explicit enough when she made the statement (that the students would need to find alternate transportation the next day). It was not handled properly."

He would not comment on whether any disciplinary action had been taken against the bus driver, but did confirm the driver had been counseled on how to handle similar situations.

But Despenza said contrary to television news reports, "The students were not abandoned in the school parking lot. They were left in the care of school officials."

LeRoy Hurd, Greenspun principal, had a different version.

He said when staff saw the students returning from the bus pickup area, "We had the students come in (the school office) and call their parents when they told us they weren't allowed on the bus."

School district policy allows students who live less than two miles from school to ride buses on a space-available basis.

When buses get overcrowded, space-available riders are supposed to be given a verbal notice from the bus driver that they have a day to find alternate transportation.

Monday's incident was the result of about three weeks of complaints about bus overcrowding from parents of eligible students, Despenza said.

Ridership on that bus nearly doubled from the beginning of the school year and was about 10 students beyond its 70-student capacity, he said.

Despenza said whenenver a space-available pick-up or drop-off is discontinued, "we always have problems," but he maintains the one-day verbal notification rule is sufficient and sometimes the only way to handle the situation.

Because many parents do not arrange for the temporary transportation and instead just have their children show up at an established bus stop, Despenza said the transportation department has no record of phone numbers or addresses for many space-available bus riders. Therefore, telephone or mail notification of discontinued bus service is usually impossible.

For those parents who do call the transportation department and arrange for space-available bus transportation, Despenza said there is no uniform notification policy to let parents know the service could be stopped at any time.

"That really all depends on which person on the staff answers the phone," he said.

Besides, Despenza said, "Common sense will tell you when space is gone, you can no longer ride."