Ill drivers leave students stuck

Special education students in the Spokane Public Schools had to find their own rides Monday when the district canceled their bus service for the day.

The decision was made because 40 bus drivers called in sick, leaving Laid-law, the company that contracts with the district, shorthanded.

“The bottom line was by 7 o’clock we knew we had a problem at a magnitude that would affect a large amount of routes,” said Joe Madsen, district director of safety and risk management.

Other options were weighed such as delaying the entire district schedule or pulling all buses from one high school, Madsen said.

The district decided to pull drivers off special education door-to-door routes and focus on students that were already waiting outside at bus stops.

“This is not a situation which any one of us would prefer. We try to keep in mind what is best for kids,” Madsen said. “The decision was made to go ahead and keep special education classes open for those students who either made it in on regular buses or were taken to school by their parents.”

To ensure today’s runs go smoothly, Laidlaw sent 40 back-up drivers to Spokane from Tacoma.

Laidlaw’s Spokane branch manager, Vera Landy, coughed as she said, “The flu hit us terrible.”

A number of drivers were unable to obtain flu shots this year due to vaccine shortages, she said.

“These people are very dedicated drivers,” Landy said. “They are sincerely ill.”

Laidlaw workers made calls Monday morning to parents of special education children.

Lisa Samuels, the mother of an 8-year-old boy with Down syndrome, said she was waiting outside for her son’s bus when the phone call came.

“They’re telling me as I’m outside waiting for his bus that there wasn’t going to be a bus,” Samuels said. “I’m so angry that I’m spitting bullets. You cannot take the neediest group of kids and say, ‘Oops. You don’t get a bus ride today.’ “

Samuels said she called a state senator, state officials, other parents and Spokane Public Schools several times Monday.

“I’ve not been nice. I’ve been eating people (on the phone),” Samuels said. “I’m not normally like that.”

When Samuels gets her son, Matthew Samuels, ready for school Monday, she begins Sunday night by telling him to expect a school day tomorrow. Routine provides the stability her son needs.

“One mess-up in their day can really mess them up,” said Samuels, who has six children.

Her son was preparing a presentation to his class that he had been looking forward to giving, Samuels said. He had a poster to help with his show-and-tell.

“He’s very angry and upset,” she said Monday morning.

Samuels was given a ride by a neighbor and made his presentation, and he received a ride back home from a friend of a friend.

“Things worked out at school,” Samuels said Monday evening. “It’s just kind of daunting as a parent.”

Samuels plans to keep making calls to see if the district’s decision amounts to discrimination or even a violation of Americans with Disabilities Act.

“I called the governor’s office and they said they were receiving phone calls all day,” Samuels said. “To just blanket a group of kids like that, especially disabled kids, the laws are so sticky when it comes to the disabled.”

Every day, Spokane Public Schools transports 7,000 students to and from school with 180 Laidlaw buses that travel a total of 9,000 miles a day.

“Understandably, people are frustrated and concerned,” Madsen said. “This was not a decision about special education versus regular education. Not at all. This is a matter of what can we do for the greater good of all students.”