Students Stranded By School Bus Driver

(Memphis) – Some parents are upset because for two days in a row, their children have been left stranded. They say it was by a school bus driver who forgot to pick them up.

6-year-old Melanie cried to go to Caldwell Guthrie Elementary School yesterday but she couldn’t. She didn’t have a way.

“We were outside until almost 9 o’clock waiting on the bus and the bus never came,” said Robin Evans, mother.

Melanie is just one of about 5 children on Cedar Street in North Memphis left stranded at the bus stop.  Her mother says she called Memphis City Schools the first day. They told her to call Durham, the private company hired to run the bus transportation system. She called but they forgot again today. The bus didn’t come until 10 a.m. School starts at 8:30 a.m.

“She was like you can’t get her to school. I said that’s why I have her on the bus because we don’t have a car,” said Evans.

The On Your Side Investigators clocked the trip from Cedar Street to Caldwell Guthrie Elementary. It’s about a mile and a half one way. The mother who is pregnant says that’s too long of a trip for the pregnant mother and her 6-year-old daughter to walk.

We also called Memphis City Schools. The school system says the bus company told them the problem stems from a substitute driver unfamiliar with the route. MCS says they are working with the bus company to see that this doesn’t happen again. We are still awaiting a return phone call from Durham School Services.