Fort Worth Parents Raise Concern After Students Dropped At Wrong Bus Stops

Parents in Fort Worth are sharing their concerns after multiple incidents of their children being dropped off at wrong locations after school.

Isabel Arreola is the mother of a Fort Worth ISD student. For years, she would drive her daughter Miranda, 9, to and from school. This is her daughter’s first year riding the school bus.

Arreola said she was hesitant about allowing her daughter the school bus, but she assumed one of the biggest issues they would realistically come across was occasionally missing the school bus.

“I never thought that she was going to get left at the wrong stop,” she told NBC 5 on Wednesday.

Over the past month, Arreola said her daughter has been dropped off at the wrong location after school three separate times. In each instance, Arreola said her daughter was dropped off about half a mile away from the assigned bus stop.

“When I got a call from my daughter, she couldn’t even get a word out. She was just so upset,” Arreola said. “This shouldn’t have happened at all. He [driver] should have stopped the bus. He should have reached out to his supervisor, like ‘hey, something’s going on. I don’t have the right bus route.’”

In one instance captured by a student with a cell phone, an adult is heard in the background.

“This is not their stop!” the adult is heard saying, as children are being let off the bus.

Arreola showed the video during a meeting before the Fort Worth ISD school board on Tuesday night.

“The response I’m getting is “I’m short staffed”. I don’t want to hear it. My kid needs to be taken care of. Her safety is number one for me,” she said.

Before the video was finished playing, Arreola’s microphone was cut, causing some parents in the audience to demand her microphone be turned back on. One of those parents was

Gloria Williams is the mother of four Fort Worth ISD students. Two of her children ride the bus home from school once a week.

“I just blew up,” she said. “I was like...y’all need to hear this. Is it because they’re not your kids you don’t want to hear this? Because your kids aren’t affected by this? Because we’re low-income people, we don’t matter?”

A board member clarified Arreola’s microphone was cut off because video is not permitted during public comments. He added the board would speak with her in person afterward.

Moving forward, Arreola said she wants better training for bus drivers and a permanent driver for her child’s route.

NBC 5 was provided the following statement from Fort Worth ISD on Wednesday:

The recent incident involving a Fort Worth ISD bus route is unacceptable and does not reflect Fort Worth ISD's commitment to its students and parents. We are determined to make things right and are implementing the following actions that will help prevent an event like this from reoccurring: (1) we are adding technical enhancements throughout our fleet, 2) we are working with transportation staff to strengthen consistency in cross-training, and 3) we will continue to meet with parents to ensure all concerns are addressed promptly.

Nothing is more important to us than our students' safety, and we will work diligently to ensure a safe and secure experience for all students, including their time on a bus to and from school.