Students left at stranger’s house after school bus gets stuck in snow, parent says
PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV/Gray News) - School buses were among the vehicles stranded in the Portland area on Wednesday amid freezing temperatures and snow.
KPTV reports that several people weren’t happy with the way Portland Public Schools handled the situation.
A special education bus driver, Carol Heacock, said she was also frustrated, saying the school district should have called for an early release because of the weather.
“This was a big risk, and it wasn’t safe,” Heacock said.
The bus driver said the transportation department checks the roads in the early morning and decides whether to delay or cancel classes during inclement weather situations.
“I believe all of our drivers and our department saw this coming. We asked for an early release, and I don’t understand why that didn’t happen,” she said.
On Wednesday, several school buses were stranded across the city and nearly 24 hours later, some were still stuck.
A mother, Amanda Matheny, told KPTV that one of those buses was carrying eight students, including her 11-year-old son who attends Roseway Heights Middle School.
“He told me the bus was stuck and that good Samaritans tried to help get the bus out but didn’t have any success,” Matheny said.
According to Matheny, the kids were then taken to a stranger’s house.
“Apparently, the bus driver left them [the kids] at a woman’s home,” she said.
Matheny said her son said that the woman claimed she worked for the David Douglas School District and had two kids that went to McDaniel High School.
“I really appreciated her, but the driver should’ve never left those kids in a stranger’s care for safety reasons. You don’t know who it is,” she said.
Matheny said a second bus ended up picking up the students with her son getting home at about 11:30 p.m.
“If they had closed schools earlier and gotten the chains on the buses earlier, they could’ve maybe avoided getting stuck and gotten the kids home before the snow got worse,” Matheny said.
The school district released a statement expressing gratitude to its staff and educators:
“PPS extends our sincere gratitude to the educators, school leaders, staff, community partners, and families across our system who ensured all of our students arrived home safely.
We are continuing to assess road conditions to determine when our schools will be able to safely reopen.
The safety and well-being of our students and staff is our primary concern, and we won’t waiver in that commitment.”
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