(March 30, 2017) Following an incident in early March, when a 4-year-old was left on a school bus that was dropping students off at Pocomoke Elementary, the Worcester County Public School System is taking steps to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.
Carrie Sterrs, public relations coordinator for Worcester County Schools, said video footage showed the pre-K student taking her seat on the bus and shortly thereafter lying down to sleep. When the bus arrived at Pocomoke Elementary School, the girl remained asleep as an attendant on the back of the bus began to usher students off, Sterrs said.
“She’s going from seat to seat and then something occurs outside of the bus that drew her attention,” she said. “While she was looking out the window at the students outside of the bus she had passed that seat.”
The sleepy child awoke a short time later after the driver retuned home and parked the vehicle. She let herself off the bus and was discovered by her father.
In response, the school system is looking to allocate funding to install child check alarm systems, a practice started in 2012, in all school buses.
“We require all our new buses that were purchased from 2012 on to have that system installed and enabled,” she said. “But obviously we had buses purchased prior to 2012 that are still in use today that did not have that system.”
Worcester County Public Schools Transportation Manager Kim Heiser explained how the child check systems operate.
“The system alerts an alarm when the bus is turned off and it requires the driver to walk to the rear of the bus to turn the alarm off by either opening a door or pushing a button,” she said. “They push the button, that requires them to walk to the front of the bus, and with that they’re checking the seats and under the seats.”
It total, Heiser said about 40 buses would be retrofitted with the child check alarms.
“It’s about half our fleet,” she said.
Sterrs said all bus drivers also would receive reminders that proper bus check procedures need to occur after every trip.
“It is the bus drivers’ responsibility to make sure they are doing those checks at the end of their run,” she said.
Heiser said all drivers would receive additional training to assure they understand how to properly use the child check alarm system
“We are going to provide further in-service training on that this summer, when we have our all-day, in-service for bus drivers,” she said. “Hopefully at the end of this school year – and definitely by the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year – all buses for Worcester County will have this system and every driver will be trained on the appropriate way to use the system.”
Carrie Sterrs, public relations coordinator for Worcester County Schools, said video footage showed the pre-K student taking her seat on the bus and shortly thereafter lying down to sleep. When the bus arrived at Pocomoke Elementary School, the girl remained asleep as an attendant on the back of the bus began to usher students off, Sterrs said.
“She’s going from seat to seat and then something occurs outside of the bus that drew her attention,” she said. “While she was looking out the window at the students outside of the bus she had passed that seat.”
The sleepy child awoke a short time later after the driver retuned home and parked the vehicle. She let herself off the bus and was discovered by her father.
In response, the school system is looking to allocate funding to install child check alarm systems, a practice started in 2012, in all school buses.
“We require all our new buses that were purchased from 2012 on to have that system installed and enabled,” she said. “But obviously we had buses purchased prior to 2012 that are still in use today that did not have that system.”
Worcester County Public Schools Transportation Manager Kim Heiser explained how the child check systems operate.
“The system alerts an alarm when the bus is turned off and it requires the driver to walk to the rear of the bus to turn the alarm off by either opening a door or pushing a button,” she said. “They push the button, that requires them to walk to the front of the bus, and with that they’re checking the seats and under the seats.”
It total, Heiser said about 40 buses would be retrofitted with the child check alarms.
“It’s about half our fleet,” she said.
Sterrs said all bus drivers also would receive reminders that proper bus check procedures need to occur after every trip.
“It is the bus drivers’ responsibility to make sure they are doing those checks at the end of their run,” she said.
Heiser said all drivers would receive additional training to assure they understand how to properly use the child check alarm system
“We are going to provide further in-service training on that this summer, when we have our all-day, in-service for bus drivers,” she said. “Hopefully at the end of this school year – and definitely by the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year – all buses for Worcester County will have this system and every driver will be trained on the appropriate way to use the system.”