ST. PAUL, Minn. — A major school bus accident leaves a St. Paul mother angry and searching for answers.
On Monday, Hindi Abdi went to pick up her children, ages 4 and 5, from Crossroads Elementary, but they weren’t there.
“When I arrived, they weren’t there,” Abdi said.
When she realized they were on a bus, she panicked.
“A bus home that we’ve never been on before. I don’t even know where the intersections are or what we talked about,” she said.
According to the Saint Paul School District, their system reported Monday that children were scheduled to ride the bus and were dropped off at their assigned bus stop.
Abdi says the miscommunication put her children in danger and she was even angrier when she learned her son refused to get off at the strange stop.
She said both her children were confused after being dropped off at the intersection of Sherburne Avenue and St Alabans Street. Her 5-year-old son saw a fire truck and ran with his sister to get help.
“We were so proud of him for taking the chance to be the brave kid he is and take care of his sister,” Abdi said.
She is still frustrated that the bus driver did not listen to her son’s concerns about the location.
“My son was able to tell an adult that this was not right, he was scared and that it was the wrong stop,” Abdi said. “For the driver to still tell him to get off without an adult present is unacceptable.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Saint Paul Public Schools said, among other things:
“Pre-K students can be dropped off without a parent if they are with an older sibling. Kindergartners do not need to have a parent present. In this case, because the students did not want to get off the bus, the driver should have taken them to the next school on their route to arrange for parental pick-up or transportation home. Because this protocol was not followed, the driver was removed. All drivers have been reminded of this important protocol.”
Abdi hopes her family’s story will bring about change.
“That policy needs to change. A 6-year-old is not nearly old enough to pull a child off the bus,” she said.
