Stratford mother expresses concern over bus-stop relocation
A local mother who’s concerned for the safety of her young children after their school bus stop was moved several hundred meters from their home doesn’t seem to have many options.
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On Wednesday, Stephanie Gosling posted her frustration to the Stratford Connect Facebook page after being told by Huron Perth Student Transportation Services that her children, aged 7 and 9, would no longer be able to get off the school bus at Fraser Drive and McCarthy Road as a result of a dispute involving another family. Instead, the two kids will be dropped off at Bradshaw Drive and McCarthy Road, roughly half a kilometer farther from their home.
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Complicating matters, Gosling said the sidewalk along McCarthy Road between Bradshaw and Fraser drives is not maintained by the city during the winter, which may force her kids to walk along the busy arterial roadway to get home after school.
“Obviously, I know their safety is my responsibility, I’m not saying it’s not, and I do my best to make it to the bus stop to pick them up, but I can’t always do that and that is a hike to get home. … With the winter weather we tend to get here … if they can’t use the sidewalk, they’re going to have to walk along the road. And in blizzard conditions, it’s hard to see two kids walking anyway,” Gosling said.
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While Gosling, who works in Kitchener and finishes up at different times each day, says she does her best to be at the bus stop on time to pick up her kids, there are occasions when traffic or inclement weather means she misses their drop-off . When the stop was only a few minutes walk from their home, those instances were much less of a worry, she said.
While she declined to provide the details regarding the decision to move the children’s bus stop since it involves another family, Huron Perth Student Transportation Services general manager Janice White said the organization was unaware that portion of sidewalk along McCarthy Road between Bradshaw and Fraser drives is not maintained during the winter. The Gosling kids have since been offered another bus stop farther along their route, past their original stop at Fraser Drive, but slightly closer to home.
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In general, however, White said the safety of students once they leave the school bus is the responsibility of the parent or caregiver.
“Parents and families of students are responsible for getting their children to and from a bus stop safely,” White said. “The school or the school-bus company or the consortia (does not take responsibility for student safety) until they’re on the bus. …Within our two counties, we have many families that walk to bus stops that don’t have sidewalks. …Everybody wants what they want and nobody wants to be told no. …When we are planning routes, we try to be consistent across our two counties because we are managing routes for both Avon Maitland and Huron Perth (Catholic school boards).
“We do try to be fair and consistent and not be taking personalities and such into account,” White added. “We often get requests from families and they don’t see the bigger picture for the other 13,000 students we’re transporting. When we make a decision, it is trying to look at our overall policies and procedures and being consistent within those.”
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