Local parents are worried after school bus drop-off scare in Worcester County
WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. – A school bus drop-off scare at a Worcester County school has parents concerned. Tristan and Terran Germann told WMDT that their 6-year-old son, Jasper, was put on the wrong bus. He was taken in the wrong direction and ended up several miles away from home. His father, Tristan Germann, was worried from the start.
“I was at the bus stop to pick up Jasper and didn’t get off the bus when the rest of the children did. I went to the bus driver at that moment and asked him to check the bus, but we couldn’t find him on the bus.”
Their son attends Ocean City Elementary. They describe the feeling as panic and believe the disastrous handoff could’ve been avoided.
“We find out that at that point, he was on a bus that was 40-45 minutes from us. We live in the Berlin area, and this was up north Ocean City at this point, at the Delaware line.”
Thankfully, with help from the bus driver, they were able to locate their son. They raised concerns with administrative officials about the school bus pickup system. “We eventually find out that they don’t walk them out to the bus. It’s not a lot of distance, but it’s roughly 40-50 feet, where they’re out on their own.”
The family recommended a change to the system. “Me and Terran’s suggestion at the time was to line the kids up in the cafeteria. There are only 8 buses, lines, and 8 teachers. The students all have little tags on their book bags that say what bus they belong on. The teachers could walk them to their bus, they would have already verified in the cafeteria.”
However, they think the school admin is not open to change. “They were sorry that it happened, and that he was found. But they wouldn’t be changing anything, because that was the system for the past 6 years. That to us was unacceptable of a response, because if you could lose one child, then another child could be lost.”
The family has been in contact with the Superintendent’s office and Worcester County Board of Education. “It’s just a mitigation of risk, and sometimes you can’t 100% mitigate risk, but if there is an opportunity to mitigate risk more, you do that.”
Worcester County Public Schools sent WMDT this statement.
“Worcester County Public Schools is aware of the unfortunate incident during which a child was on the wrong bus with a substitute bus driver. We certainly empathize with the parents’ concerns, and through our conversations with the child’s parents since the incident, we believe we have arrived at a resolution to improve existing protocols at dismissal to ensure this does not occur in the future. These protocols will go into effect next week.”
