Parents in the Kemptville area are demanding answers after their children were delayed for more than two hours getting home from elementary school on Monday. Katie O’Connor says she initially wasn’t concerned when her 11-year-old daughter’s school bus failed to arrive at its usual time of 4:05 p.m. But as the minutes passed, she began to worry. “I checked the app, there was nothing there. I figured I’d give it a little bit more time, 4:30 comes around and she’s still not home,” O’Connor said. With no update from Student Transportation of Eastern Ontario (STEO), O’Connor began making phone calls, eventually reaching the school principal. “I finally get a hold of the principal she’s like ‘oh yeah’ there’s a bit of bus trouble they sent another bus from a neighbouring school. They’re going to pick them up, complete the first route and then they’ll drop your kids off pretty shortly,” she said. Shortly after speaking with the principal, she says STEO posted an alert warning parents of a delay of more than an hour. But that delay stretched beyond two hours. “6:00 happens and I’m starting to panic because my child should be home by this point,” O’Connor said. Parents called police She wasn’t the only parent concerned. Melissa Dimock had three children on the same bus and says the extended ride was especially difficult for some of the youngest passengers. “My younger two in grades four and two told me stories about kindergarten children who were crying or had wet themselves on the bus because this was almost 2.5 hours with no access to a washroom,” Dimock said. By the time the bus finally arrived, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were following behind after multiple calls from parents. “You should know where your child is and you should be able to find that information out immediately either from the school, from STEO, from the bus company, and there was no clarity from any of those,” Dimock said. According to the bus company First Student, it all started when a bus driver couldn’t come to work. It did not provide a reason for the lengthy delay but in a statement to CTV News Ottawa, manager of communications, Brenna Rudisill said: “We apologize for both the delay and the lack of timely communication. Families rely on us to transport their children safely and keep them informed, and we fell short of those expectations. We have put measures in place to help prevent a similar situation from happening again.” ‘I want accountability’ But parents still want to know what went wrong and why they were left in the dark. “I want accountability and I want apologies for what it is that they put our children through, what it is they put families through,” said O’Connor. “We’re putting our most precious people in their hands, we’re putting them on the bus, trusting they’re going to make it to school, they’re going to be safe at school, and that they’re going to arrive safely back to us.” O’Connor says she was told the combined route involved dropping students off in Spencerville, more than 20 kilometers away, contributed to the delay. She says clearer communication could have allowed them to make alternate arrangements to pick up their children. In a statement, the Upper Canada District School Board said it is working with STEO to better understand what happened. “We are working with STEO to better understand the significant delay in getting students home, including the breakdown in communication between the bus company, families and the school, and to identify measures to prevent a similar situation in the future,” said April Scott-Clarke, manager of communications with the board. “We recognize that this was a difficult experience for students and families and expect that a thorough review will be undertaken to understand what occurred.” CTV News Ottawa also reached out to STEO but did not receive a response by deadline.
